n>2  ' 

3.io3 


Oak  Street 
UNCLASSIFIED 


The  Irrepressible  Conflict. 

A  SPEECH 

.  hY 

WILLIAM  II.  SEWARD, 

DELIVERED  AT  ROCHESTER,  MONDAY,  OCT  25,  1^8. 


Fellow- Citizens  :  The  unmistakable  out¬ 
breaks  of  zeal  which  occur  all  around  me,  show 
that  you  are  earnest  men — and  such  a  man  am 
I.  Let  us  therefore,  at  least  for  a  time,  pass  j 
by  all  secondary  and  collateral  questions,  1 
whether  of  a  personal  or  of  a  general  nature, ! 
and  consider  the  main  subject  of  the  present 
canvass.  The  Democratic  party — or,  to  speak 
more  accurately — the  party  which  wears  that 
attractive  name,  is  in  possession  of  the  Federal 
Government.  The  Republicans  propose  to  dis¬ 
lodge  that  party,  and  dismiss  it  from  its  high 
trust. 

The  main  subject,  then,  is,  whether  the  De¬ 
mocratic  party  deserves  to  retain  the  confi¬ 
dence  of  the  American  People.  In  attempting 
to  prove  it  unworthy,  I  think  that  I  am  n  Tc 
actuated  by  prejudices  against  that  party,  or 
by  prepossessions  in  favor  of  its  adversary ;  for 
I  have  learned,  by  some  experience,  that  vir¬ 
tue  and  patriotism,  vice  and  selfishness,  are 
found  in  all  parties,  and  that  they  differ  less  in 
their  motives  than  in  the  policies  they  pursue. 

Our  country  is  a  theatre,  which  exhibits.  ;u 
fulL  operation,  two  radically  different  political 
systems ;  the  one  resting  on  the  basis  of  servile 
or  slave  labor,  the  other  on  the  basis  of  volun¬ 
tary  labor  of  freemen. 

The  laborers  who  are  enslaved  are  all  ne¬ 
groes,  or  persons  more  or  less  purely  of  Afri¬ 
can  derivation.  But  this  is  only  accidental. 
The  principle  of  the  system  is,  that  labor  in 
every  society,  by  whomsoever  performed,  is 
necessarily  unintellectual,  grovelling  and  base ; 
and  that  the  laborer,  equally  for  his  own  good 
and  for  the  welfare  of  the  Liate,  ought  to  be 
enslaved.  The  white  laboring  man,  whether 
native  or  foreigner,  is  not  enslaved,  only  be¬ 
cause  he  cannot,  as  yet,  be  reduced  to  bon¬ 
dage. 

You  need  not  be  told  now  that  the  slave 
system  is  the  older  of  the  two,  and  that  >mr,o 
it  was  universal. 

The  emancipation  of  our  own  ancestors, 
Caucasians  and  Europeans  as  they  were,  hardly 


dates  beyond  a  period  of  five  hundred  years. 
The  great  melioration  of  human  society  which 
modem  times  exhibit,  is  mainly  duo  to  the 
incomplete  substitution  of  the  system  of  volun- 
*  ary  labor  for  the  old  one  of  servile  labor, 
which  has  already  taken  place.  This  African 
slave  system  is  one  which,  in  its  origin  and  in 
its  growth,  has  been  altogether  foreign  from 
•he  habits  of  the  races  "which  colonized  these 
States,  and  established  civilization  here.  It 
was  introduced  on  this  new  continent  as  an 
engine  of  conquest,  and’  for  the  establishment 
of  monarchical  power,  by  the  Portuguese  and 
the  Spaniards,  and  w  ns  rapidly  extended  by 
them  all  over  South  America,  Central  Ame¬ 
rica,  Louisiana,  and  Mexico.  Its  legitimate 
fruits  are  seen  in  the  poverty,  imbecility,’  and* 
anarchy,  which  now'  pervade  all  Portuguese 
and  Spanish  America.  The  free-labor  system 
is  of  German  extraction,  and  it  was  establish¬ 
ed  in  our  country  by  emigrants  from  Swreden, 
Holland,  Germany.  Great  Britain,  and  Ire¬ 
land. 

We  justly  ascribe  to  its  influences  the 
strength,  wealth,  greatness,  intelligence,  and 
freedom,  which  the  wrhole  American  people 
now  enjoy.  One  of  the  chief  elements  of  the 
value  of  human  life  is  freedom  in  the  pursuit 
of  happiness.  The  slave  system  is  not  only  in¬ 
tolerant,  unjust,  and  inhuman,  toward  the  la¬ 
borer,  whom,  only  because  he  is  a  laborer,  it 
loads  down  with  chains  and  converts  into  mer¬ 
chandise,  but  is  scarcely  less  severe  upon  the 
freeman,  to  whom,  only  because  he  is  a  laborer 
from  necessity,  it  denies  facilities  for  employ¬ 
ment,  and  whom  it  expels  from  the  commu¬ 
nity  because  it  cannot  enslave  and  convert 
him  into  merchandise  also.  It  is  necessarily 
improvident  and  ruinous,  because,  as  a  gene- 
'  ral  truth,  communities  prosper  and  flourish  or 
1  droop  and  decline  in  just  the  degree  that  Hiey 
practise  or  neglect  to  practise  the  primary 
duties  of  justice  and  humanity.  T’  o  free- 
labor  system  conforms  to  the  divine  law  of 
equality,  which  is  written  in  the  hearts  and 


frST  Fob  Sale  at  tiie  Office  of  the  New  York  Tribune.  Price,  per  Single  Copy,  4o.  ; 
Dozen  Copies,  25c.;  per  Hu:  deed,  $1  25;  per  Thousand,  £10. 


consciences  of  men,  and  therefore  is  always 
and  everywhere  beneficent. 

The  slave  system  is  one  of  constant  danger, 
distrust,  suspicion,  and  watchfulness.  It  de¬ 
bases  those  whose  toil  alone  can  produce 
wealth  and  resources  for  defence,  to  the  lowest 
degree  of  which  human  nature  is  capable,  to 
guard  against  mutiny  and  insurrection,  and 
thus  wastes  energies  which  otherwise  might 
be  employed  in  national  development  and 
aggrandizement. 

The  free-labor  system  educates  all  alike,  and 
by  opening  all  the  fields  of  industrial  employ¬ 
ment,  and  all  the  departments  of  authority,  to 
the  unchecked  and  equal  rivalry  of  all  classes 
of  men,  at  once  secures  universal  contentment, 
and  brings  into  the  highest  possible  activity  all 
the  physical,  moral,  and  social  energies  of  the 
whole  State.  In  States  where  the  slave- sys¬ 
tem  prevails,  the  masters,  directly  or  indirect¬ 
ly,  secure  all  political  power,  and  constitute  a 
ruling  aristocracy.  In  States  where  the  free- 
labor  system  prevails,  universal  suffrage  ne¬ 
cessarily  obtains,  and  the  State  inevitably 
becomes,  sooner  or  later,  a  republic  or  demo¬ 
cracy. 

Russia  yet  maintains  slavery,  and  is  a  des¬ 
potism.  Most  of  the  other  European  states 
have  abolished  slavery,  and  adopted  the  sys¬ 
tem  of  free  labor.  It  was  the  antagonistic  po¬ 
litical  tendencies  of  the  two  systems  which 
the  first  Napoleon  was  contemplating  when 
he  predicted  that  Europe  would  ultimately  be 
either  all  Oossack  or  all  Republican.  Never 
did  human  sagacity  utter  a  more  pregnant 
truth.  The  two  systems  are  at  once  perceived 
to  be  incongruous.  But  they  are  more  than 
incongruous — they  are  incompatible.  They 
never  have  permanently  existed  together  in 
one  country,  and  they  never  can.  It  would  be 
easy  to  demonstrate  this  impossibility,  from 
the  irreconcilable  contrast  between  their  great 
principles  and  characteristics.  But  the  ex¬ 
perience  of  mankind  has  conclusively  estab¬ 
lished  it.  Slavery,  as  I  have  already  intimated, 
existed  in  every  state  in  Europe.  Free  labor 
has  supplanted  it  everywhere  except  in  Rus¬ 
sia  and  Turkey.  State  necessities  developed 
in  modern  times,  are  now  obliging  even  those 
two  nations  to  encourage  and  employ  free 
labor ;  and  already,  despotic  as  they  are,  we 
find  them  engaged  in  abolishing  slavery.  In 
the  United  States,  slavery  came  into  collision 
with  free  labor  at  the  close  of  the  last  century, 
and  fell  before  it  in  New  England,  New  York, 
New  Jersey,  and  Pennsylvania,  but  triumphed 
over  it  effectually,  and  excluded  it  for  a  period 
yet  undetermined,  from  Virginia,  the  Oaro- 
linas,  and  Georgia.  Indeed,  so  incompatible 
are  the  two  systems,  that  every  new  State 
which  is  organized  within  our  ever-extending 
domain  makes  its  first  political  act  a  choice  of 
the  one  and  an  exclusion  of  the  other,  even  at 


the  cost  of  civil  war,  if  necessary.  The  slave 
States,  without  law,  at  the  last  national  elec¬ 
tion,  successfully  forbade,  within  their  own 
limits,  even  the  casting  of  votes  for  a  candi¬ 
date  for  President  of  the  United  States* sup¬ 
posed  to  be  favorable  to  the  establishment  of 
the  free-labor  system  in  new  States. 

Hitherto,  the  two  systems  have  existed  m 
different  States,  but  side  by  side  within  the 
American  Union.  This  has  happened  because 
the  Union  is  a  confederation  of  States.  But 
in  another  aspect  the  United  States  constitute 
only  one  nation.  Increase  of  population,  which 
is  filling  the  States  out  to  their  very  borders, 
together  with  a  new  and  extended  net-work 
of  railroads  and  other  avenues,  and  an  inter¬ 
nal  commerce  which  daily  becomes  more  inti¬ 
mate,  is  rapidly  bringing  the  States  into  a 
higher  and  more  perfect  social  unity  or  con¬ 
solidation.  Thus,  these  antagonistic  systems 
are  continually  coming  into  closer  contact, 
and  collision  results. 

Shall  I  tell  you  what  this  collision  means  ? 
They  who  think  that  it  is  accidental,  unneces¬ 
sary,  the  work  of  interested  or  fanatical  agi¬ 
tators,  and  therefore  ephemeral,  mistake  the 
case  altogether.  It  is  an  irrepressible  conflict 
between  opposing  and  enduring  forces,  and  it 
means  that  the  United  States  must  and  will, 
sooner  or  later,  become  either  entirely  a  slave¬ 
holding  nation,  or  entirely  a  free-labor  nation. 
Either  the  cotton  and  rice  fields  of  South  Ca¬ 
rolina  and  the  sugar  plantations  of  Louisiana 
will  ultimately  be  tilled  by  free  labor,  and 
Charleston  and  New  Orleans  become  marts 
for  legitimate  merchandise  alone,  or  else  th* 
rye-fields  and  wheat-fields  of  Massachusetts 
and  New  York  must  again  be  surrendered  bj 
their  farmers  to  slave  culture  and  to  the  pro 
Auction  of  slaves,  and  Boston  and  New  York 
become  once  more  markets  for  trade  in  the 
bodies  and  souls  of  men.  It  is  the  failure  to 
apprehend  this  great  truth  that  induces  so 
many  unsuccessful  attempts  at  final  compro¬ 
mise  between  the  slave  and  free  States,  and  it 
is  the  existence  of  this  great  fact  that  renders 
all  such  pretended  compromises,  when  made, 
vain  and  ephemeral.  Startling  as  this  saying 
may  appear  to  you,  fellow-citizens,  it  is  by  no 
means  an  original  or  even  a  modern  one.  Our 
forefathers  knew  it  to  be  true,  and  unanimous¬ 
ly  acted  upon  it  when  they  framed  the  Con¬ 
stitution  of  the  United  States.  They  regarded 
the  existence  of  the  servile  system  in  so  many 
of  the  States  with  sorrow  and  shame,  which 
they  openly  confessed,  and  they  looked  upon 
the  collision  between  them,  which  was  then 
just  revealing  itself,  and  which  we  are  now 
accustomed  to  deplore,  with  favor  and  hope. 
They  knew  that  either  the  one  or  the  other 
system  must  exclusively  prevail. 

Unlike  too  many  of  those  who  in  modern 
time  invoke  their  authority,  they  had  a  choice 


3 


between  the  two.  They  preferred  the  system 
of  free  labor,  and  they  determined  to  organize 
the  Government,  and  so  to  direct  its  activity, 
that  that  system  should  surely  and  certainly 
prevail.  For  this  purpose,  and  no  other,  they 
based  the  whole  structure  of  Government 
broadly  on  the  principle  that  all  men  are 
created  equal,  and  therefore  free — little  dream¬ 
ing  that,  within  the  short  period  of  one  hun¬ 
dred  years,  their  descendants  would  bear  to 
be  told  by  any  orator,  however  popular,  that 
the  utterance  of  that  principle  was  merely  a 
rhetorical  rhapsody ;  or  by  any  judge,  how¬ 
ever  venerated,  that  it  was  attended  by  men¬ 
tal  reservations,  which  rendered  it  hypocriti¬ 
cal  and  false.  By  the  Ordinance  of  1787,  they 
dedicated  all  of  the  national  domain  not  yet 
polluted  by  Slavery  to  free  labor  immediately, 
thenceforth  and  forever ;  while  by  the  new 
Constitution  and  laws  they  invited  foreign 
free  labor  from  all  lands  under  the  sun,  and 
interdicted  the  importation  of  African  slave 
labor,  at  all  times,  in  all  places,  and  under  all 
circumstances  whatsoever.  It  is  true  that 
they  necessarily  and  wisely  modified  this 
olicy  of  Freedom,  by  leaving  it  to  the  several 
tates,  affected  as  they  were  by  differing  cir¬ 
cumstances,  to  abolish  Slavery  in  their  own 
way  and  at  their  own  pleasure,  instead  of 
confiding  that  duty  to  Congress,  and  that  they 
secured  to  the  Slave  States,  while  yet  retain¬ 
ing  the  system  of  Slavery,  a  three-fifths  repre¬ 
sentation  of  slaves  in  the  Federal  Government, 
until  they  should  find  themselves  able  to  re¬ 
linquish  it  with  safety.  But  the  very  nature 
of  these  modifications  fortifies  my  position 
that  the  fathers  knew  that  the  two  systems 
could  not  endure  within  the  Union,  and  ex¬ 
pected  that  within  a  short  period  Slavery 
would  disappear  forever.  Moreover,  in  order 
that  these  modifications  might  not  altogether 
defeat  their  grand  design  of  a  Republic  main¬ 
taining  universal  equality,  they  provided  that 
two-thirds  of  the  States  might  amend  the 
Constitution. 

It  remains  to  say  on  this  point  only  one 
word,  to  guard  against  misapprehension.  If 
these  States  are  to  again  become  universally 
slave-holding,  I  do  not  pretend  to  say  with 
what  violations  of  the  Constitution  that  end 
shall  be  accomplished.  On  the  other  hand, 
while  I  do  confidently  believe  and  hope  that 
my  country  will  yet  become  a  land  of  univer¬ 
sal  Freedom,  I  do  not  expect  that  it  will  be 
made.  so  otherwise  than  through  the  action 
of  the  several  States  cooperating  with  the 
Federal  Government,  and  all  acting  in  strict 
conformity  with  their  respective  Constitu¬ 
tions. 

The  strife  and  contentions  concerning  Sla¬ 
very,  which  gently-disposed  persons  so  habi¬ 
tually  deprecate,  are  nothing  more  than  the 
ripening  of  the  conflict  which  the  fathors 


themselves  not  only  thus  regarded  with  favor, 
but  which  they  may  be  said  to  have  insti¬ 
tuted. 

It  is  not  to  be  denied,  however,  that  thus 
far  the  course  of  that  contest  has  not  been 
according  to  their  humane  anticipations  and 
wishes.  In  the  field  of  federal  polities,  Sla¬ 
very,  deriving  unlooked-for  advantages  from 
commercial  changes,  and  energies  unforeseen 
from  the  facilities  of  combination  between 
members  of  the  slaveholding  class  and  between 
that  class  and  other  property  classes,  early 
rallied,  and  has  at  length  made  a  stand,  not 
merely  to  retain  its  original  defensive  position, 
but  to  extend  its  sway  throughout  the  whole 
Union.  It  is  certain  that  the  slaveholding 
class  of  American  citizens  indulge  this  high 
ambition,  and  that  they  derive  encouragement 
for  it  from  the  rapid  and  effective  political 
successes  which  they  have  already  obtained. 
The  plan  of  operation  is  this :  By  continued 
appliances  of  patronage  and  threats  of  dis¬ 
union,  they  will  keep  a  majority  favorable  to 
these  designs  in  the  Senate,  where  each  State 
has  an  equal  representation.  Through  that 
majority  they  will  defeat,  as  they  best  can, 
the  admission  of  free  States  and  secure  the 
admission  of  slave  States.  Under  the  protec¬ 
tion  of  the  Judiciary,  they  will,  on  the  princi¬ 
ple  of  the  Dred  Scott  case,  carry  Slavery  into 
all.  the  Territories  of  the  United  States  now 
existing  and  hereafter  to  be  organized.  By 
the  action  of  the  President  and  the  Senate, 
using  the  treaty-making  power,  they  will  an¬ 
nex  foreign  slaveholding  States.  In  a  favor¬ 
able  conjuncture  they  will  induce  Congress  to 
repeal  the  act  of  1808,  which  prohibits  the 
foreign  slave-trade,  and  so  they  will  import 
from  Africa,  at  the  cost  of  only  $20  a  head, 
slaves  enough  to  fill  up  the  interior  of  the 
continent.  Thus  relatively  increasing  the 
number  of  slave  States,  they  will  allow  no 
amendment  to  the  Constitution  prejudicial  to 
their  interest ;  and  so,  having  permanently 
established  their  power,  they  expect  the 
Federal  Judiciary  to  nullify  all  State  laws 
which  shall  interfere  with  internal  or  foreign 
commerce  in  slaves.  When  the  free  States 
shall  be  sufficiently  demoralized  to  tolerate 
these  designs,  they  reasonably  conclude  that 
Slavery  will  be  accepted  by  those  States  them¬ 
selves.  I  shall  not  stop  to  show  how  speedy 
or  how  complete  would  bo  the  ruin  which 
the  accomplishment  of  these  slaveholding 
schemes  would  bring  upon  the  country.  For 
one,  I  should  not  remain  in  the  country  to 
test  the  sad  experiment.  Having  spent  my 
manhood,  though  not  my  whole  life,  in  a  free 
State,  no  aristocracy  of  any  kind,  much  less 
an  aristocracy  of  slaveholders,  shall  ever  make 
the  laws  of  the  land  in  which  I  shall  be  con¬ 
tent  to  live.  Having  seen  the  society  arounjd 
me  universally  engaged  in  agriculture,  maim- 


4 


factures  and  trade,  which  were  innocent  and 
beneficent,  I  shall  never  be  a  denizen  of  a 
State  where  men  and  women  are  reared  as 
cattle,  and  bought  and  sold  as  merchandise. 
When  that  evil  day  shall  come,  and  all  further 
effort  at  resistance  shall  be  impossible,  then, 
if  there  shall  be  no  better  hope  for  redemp¬ 
tion  than  I  can  now  foresee,  I  shall  say  with 
Franklin,  while  looking  abroad  over  the  whole 
earth  for  a  new  and  more  congenial  home, 
“  Where  liberty  dwells,  there  is  my  country.” 

You  will  tell  me  that  these  fears  are  extra¬ 
vagant  and  chimerical.  I  answer,  they  are 
so  ;  but  they  are  so  only  because  the  designs 
of  the  slaveholders  must  and  can  be  defeated. 
But  it  is  only  the  possibility  of  defeat  that 
renders  them  so.  They  cannot  be  defeated 
by  inactivity.  There  is  no  escape  from  them, 
compatible  with  non-resistance.  How,  then, 
and  in  what  way,  shall  the  necessary  resist¬ 
ance  be  made?  There  is  only  one  way.  The 
Democratic  party  must  be  permanently  dis¬ 
lodged  from  the  Government.  The  reason  is, 
that  the  Democratic  party  is  inextricably 
committed  to  the  designs  of  the  slaveholders, 
which  I  have  described.  Let  me  be  well 
understood.  I  do  not  charge  that  the  Demo¬ 
cratic  candidates  for  public  office  now  before 
the  people  are  pledged  to,  much  less  that  the 
Democratic  masses  who  support  them  really 
adopt,  those  atrocious  and  dangerous  designs. 
Candidates  may,  and  generally  do,  mean  to 
act  justly,  wisely,  and  patriotically,  when  they 
shall  be  elected ;  but  they  become  the  mini¬ 
sters  and  servants,  not  the  dictators,  of  the 
power  which  elects  them.  The  policy  which 
a  party  shall  pursue  at  a  future  period  is  only 
gradually  developed,  depending  on  the  occur¬ 
rence  of  events  never  fully  foreknown.  The 
motives  of  men,  whether  acting  as  electors  or 
in  any  other  capacity,  are  generally  pure. 
Nevertheless,  it  is  not  more  true  that  “Hell 
is  paved  with  good  intentions,”  than  it  is  that 
earth  is  covered  with  wrecks  resulting  from 
innocent  and  amiable  motives. 

The  very  constitution  of  the  Democratic 
party  commits  it  to  execute  all  the  designs  of 
the  slaveholders,  whatever  they  may  be.  It 
is  not  a  party  of  the  whole  Union,  of  all  the 
free  States  and  of  all  the  slave  States ;  nor  yet 
is  it  a  party  of  the  free  States  in  the  North 
and  in  the  Northwest;  but  it  is  a  sectional 
and  local  party,  having  practically  its  seat 
within  the  slave  States,  and  counting  its  con¬ 
stituency  chiefly  and  almost  exclusively  there. 
Of  all  its  representatives  in  Congress  and  in 
the  Electoral  Colleges,  two-thirds  uniformly 
come  from  these  States.  Its  great  element  of 
strength  lies  in  the  vote  of  the  slaveholders, 
augmented  by  the  representation  of  three- 
fifths  of  the  slaves.  Deprive  the  Democratic 
party  of  this  strength,  and  it  would  be  a  help¬ 
less  and  hopeless  minority,  incapable  of  con¬ 


tinued  organization.  The  Democratic  party, 
being  thus  local  and  sectional,  acquires  new 
strength  from  the  admission  of  every  new 
slave  State,  and  loses  relatively  by  the  ad¬ 
mission  of  every  new  free  State  into  the 
Union. 

A  party  is  in  one  sense  a  joint-stock  associa¬ 
tion,  in  which  those  who  contribute  most 
direct  the  action  and  management  of  the 
concern.  The  slaveholders  contributing  in 
an  overwhelming  proportion  to  the  capital 
strength  of  the  Democratic  party,  they  neces¬ 
sarily  dictate  and  prescribe  its  policy.  The 
inevitable  caucus  system  enables  them  to  do 
so  with  a  show  of  fairness  and  justice.  If  it 
were  possible  to  conceive  for  a  moment  that 
the  Democratic  party  should  disobey  the  be¬ 
hests  of  the  slaveholders,  we  should  then  see 
a  withdrawal  of  the  slaveholders,  which  would 
leave  the  party  to  perish.  The  portion  of  the 
party  which  is  found  in  the  free  States  is  a 
mere  appendage,  convenient  to  modify  its 
sectional  character,  without  impairing  its  sec¬ 
tional  constitution,  and  is  less  effective  in 
regulating  its  movement  than  the  nebulous 
tail  of  the  comet  is  in  determining  the  ap¬ 
pointed  though  apparently  eccentric  course  of 
the  fiery  sphere  from  which  it  emanates. 

To  expect  the  Democratic  party  to  resist 
Slavery  and  favor  Freedom,  is  as  unreasonable 
as,  to  look  for  Protestant  missionaries  to  the 
Catholic  Propaganda  of  Pome.  The  history 
of  the  Democratic  party  commits  it  to  the 
policy  of  Slavery.  It  has  been  the  Demo¬ 
cratic  party,  and  no  other  agency,  which  has 
carried  that  policy  up  to  its  present  alarming 
culmination.  Without  stopping  to  ascertain, 
critically,  the  origin  of  the  present  Democratic 
party,  we  may  concede  its  claim  to  date  from 
the  era  of  good  feeling  which  occurred  under 
the  Administration  of  President  Monroe.  At 
that  time,  in  this  State,  and  about  that  time 
in  many  others  of  the  free  States,  the  Demo¬ 
cratic  party  deliberately  disfranchised  the 
free  colored  or  African  citizen,  and  it  has  per¬ 
tinaciously  continued  this  disfranchisement 
ever  since.  This  was  an  effective  aid  to  Sla¬ 
very  ;  for  while  the  slaveholder  votes  for  his 
slaves  against  Freedom,  the  freed  slave  in  the 
free  States  is  prohibited  from  voting  against 
Slavery. 

In  1824,  the  Democracy  resisted  the  elec¬ 
tion  of  John  Quincy  Adams — himself  before 
that  time  an  acceptable  Democrat^-and  in 
1828,  it  expelled  him  from  the  Presidency 
and  put  a  slaveholder  in  his  place,  although 
the  office  had  been  filled  by  slaveholders 
thirty  two  out  of  forty  years. 

In  1836,  Martin  Van  Buren — the  first  non- 
slaveholding  citizefr  of  a  free  State  to  whose 
election  the  Democratic  party  ever  consented 
— signalized  his  inauguration  into  the  Presi 
dency  by  a  gratuitous  announcement,  that 


5 


under  no  circumstances  would  lie  ever  approve 
a  bill  for  the  abolition  of  Slavery  in  the  Dis¬ 
trict  of  Columbia.  From  1838  to  1844,  the 
subject  of  abolishing  Slavery  in  the  District 
of  Columbia  and  in  the  national  dock-yards 
and  arsenals  was  brought  before  Congress  by 
repeated  popular  appeals.  The  Democratic 
party  thereupon  promptly  denied  the  right  of 
petition,  and  effectually  suppressed  the  free¬ 
dom  of  speech  in  Congress,  so  far  as  the  insti¬ 
tution  of  Slavery  was  concerned. 

From  1840  to  1843,  good  and  wise  men 
counselled  that  Texas  should  remain  outside 
of  the  Union  until  she  should  consent  to  re¬ 
linquish  her  self- instituted  Slavery;  but  the 
Democratic  party  precipitated  her  admission 
into  the  Union,  not  only  without  that  condi¬ 
tion,  but  even  with  a  covenant  that  the  State 
might  be  divided  and  reorganized  so  as  to 
constitute  four  slave  States  instead  of  one. 

In  1846,  when  the  United  States  became  in¬ 
volved  in  a  war  with  Mexico,  and  it  was  ap¬ 
parent  that  the  struggle  would  end  in  the  dis¬ 
memberment  of  that  republic,  which  was  a 
non-slaveholding  power,  the  Democratic  party 
rejected  a  declaration  that  Slavery  should  not 
be  established  within  the  territory  to  be  ac¬ 
quired.  When,  in  1850,  governments  were 
to  be  instituted  in  the  Territories  of  California 
and  New  Mexico,  the  fruits  of  that  war,  the 
Democratic  party  refused  to  admit  New  Mex¬ 
ico  as  a  free  State,  and  only  consented  to  ad¬ 
mit  California  as  a  free  State  on  the  condition, 
as  it  has  since  explained  the  transaction,  of 
leaving  all  of  New  Mexico  and  Utah  open  to 
Slavery,  to  which  was  also  added  the  conces¬ 
sion  of  perpetual  Slavery  in  the  District  of 
Columbia,  and  the  passage  of  an  unconstitu¬ 
tional,  cruel,  and  humiliating  law,  for  the  re¬ 
capture  of  fugitive  slaves,  with  a  further  sti¬ 
pulation  that  the  subject  of  Slavery  should 
never  again  be  agitated  in  either  chamber  of 
Congress.  When,  in  1854,  the  slaveholders 
were  contentedly  reposing  on  these  great  ad¬ 
vantages,  then  so  recently  won,  the  Demo¬ 
cratic  party  unnecessarily,  officiously,  and 
with  superserviceable  liberality,  awakened 
them  from  their  slumber,  to  offer  and  force 
on  their  acceptance  the  abrogation  of  the  law 
which  declared  that  neither  Slavery  nor  invo¬ 
luntary  servitude  should  ever  exist  within 
that  part  of  the  ancient  territory  of  Louisiana 
which  lay  outside  of  the  State  of  Missouri, 
and  north  of  the  parallel  of  36°  30'  of  north 
latitude — a  law  which,  with  the  exception  of 
one  other,  was  the  only  statute  of  Freedom 
then  remaining  in  the  Federal  code. 

In  1856,  when  the  people  of  Kansas  had  or¬ 
ganized  a  new  State  within  the  region  thus 
abandoned  to  Slavery,  and  applied  to  be  ad¬ 
mitted  as  a  free  State  into  the  Union,  the 
Democratic  party  contemptuously  rejected 
their  petition,  and  drove  them,  with  menaces 


and  intimidations,  from  the  Halls  of  Congress, 
and  armed  the  President  with  military  power 
to  enforce  their  submission  to  a  slave  code,  es¬ 
tablished  over  them  by  fraud  and  usurpation. 
At  every  subsequent  stage  of  the  long  contest 
which  has  since  raged  in  Kansas,  the  Demo¬ 
cratic  party  has  lent  its  sympathies,  its  aid, 
and  all  the  powers  of  the  Government  which 
it  controlled,  to  enforce  Slavery  upon  that 
unwilling  and  injured  people.  And  now,  even 
at  this  day,  while  it  mocks  us  with  the  assur¬ 
ance  that  Kansas  is  free,  the  Democratic  party 
keeps  the  State  excluded  from  her  just  and 
proper  place  in  the  Union,  under  the  hope 
that  she  may  be  dragooned  into  the  accept¬ 
ance  of  Slavery. 

The  Democratic  party,  finally,  has  procured 
from  a  Supreme  Judiciary,  fixed  in  its  inte¬ 
rest,  a  decree  that  Slavery  exists  by  force  of 
the  Constitution  in  every  Territory  of  the 
United  States,  paramount  to  all  legislative 
authority,  either  within  the  Territory,  or  re¬ 
siding  in  Congress. 

Such  is  the  Democratic  party.  It  has  no 
policy,  State  or  Federal,  for  finance,  or  trade, 
or  manufacture,  or  commerce,  or  education, 
or  internal  improvements,  or  for  the  protec¬ 
tion  or  even  the  security  of  civil  or  religious 
liberty.  It  is  positive  and  uncompromising 
in  the  interest  of  Slavery — negative,  compro¬ 
mising,  and  vacillating,  in  regard  to  every¬ 
thing  else.  It  boasts  its  love  of  equality,  and 
wastes  its  strength,  and  even  its  life,  in  forti¬ 
fying  the  only  aristocracy  known  in  the  land. 
It  professes  fraternity,  and,  so  often  as  Slavery 
requires,  allies  itself  with  proscription.  It 
magnifies  itself  for  conquests  in  foreign  lands, 
but  it  sends  the  national  eagle  forth  always 
with  chains,  and  not  the  olive  branch,  in  his 
fangs. 

This  dark  record  shows  you,  fellow-citizens, 
what  I  was  unwilling  to  announce  at  an  ear¬ 
lier  stage  of  this  argument,  that  of  the  whole 
nefarious  schedule  of  slaveholding  designs 
which  I  have  submitted  to  you,  the  Demo¬ 
cratic  party  has  left  only  one  yet  to  be  con¬ 
summated — the  abrogation  of  the  law  which 
forbids  the  African  slave  trade. 

Now,  I  know  very  well  that  the  Democratic 
party  has,  at  every  stage  of  these  proceedings, 
disavowed  the  motive  and  the  policy  of  forti¬ 
fying  and  extending  Slavery,  and  has  excused 
them  on  entirely  different  and  more  plausible 
grounds.  But  the  inconsistency  and  frivolity 
of  these  pleas  prove  still  more  conclusively 
the  guilt  I  charge  upon  that  party.  It  must, 
indeed,  try  to  excuse  such  guilt  before  man¬ 
kind,  and  even  to  the  consciences  of  its  own 
adherents.  There  is  an  instinctive  abhorrence 
of  Slavery,  and  an  inborn  and  inhering  love 
of  Freedom  in  the  human  heart,  which  ren¬ 
der  palliation  of  such  gross  misconduot  indis¬ 
pensable.  It  disfranchised  the  free  African 


0 


on  the  ground  ojf  a  fear  that,  if  left  to  enjoy 
the  right  of  suffrage,  he  might  seduce  the  free 
white  citizen  into  amalgamation  with  his 
wronged  and  despised  race.  The  Democratic 
party  condemned  and  deposed  John  Quincy 
Adams,  because  he  expended  $12,000,000  a 
year,  while  it  justifies  his  favored  successor  in 
spending  $70,000,000,  $80,000,000,  and  even 
$100,000,000,  a  year.  It  denies  emancipation 
in  the  District  of  Columbia,  even  with  com¬ 
pensation  to  masters  and  the  consent  of  the 
people,  on  the  ground  of  an  implied  constitu¬ 
tional  inhibition,  although  the  Constitution 
expressly  confers  upon  Congress  sovereign 
legislative  power  in  that  District,  and  although 
the  Democratic  party  is  tenacious  of  the  prin¬ 
ciple  of  strict  construction.  It  violated  the 
express  provisions  of  the  Constitution  in  sup¬ 
pressing  petition  and  debate  on  the  subject  of 
Slavery,  through  fear  of  disturbance  of  the 
public  harmony,  although  it  claims  that  the 
electors  have  a  right  to  instruct  their  repre¬ 
sentatives,  and  even  demand  their  resignation 
in  cases  of  contumacy.  It  extended  Slavery 
over  Texas,  and  connived  at  the  attempt  to 
spread  it  across  the  Mexican  territories,  even 
to  the  shores  of  the  Pacific  Ocean,  under  a 
plea  of  enlarging  the  area  of  Freedom.  It 
abrogated  the  Mexican  slave  law  and  the  Mis¬ 
souri  Compromise  prohibition  of  Slavery  in 
Kansas,  not  to  open  the  new  Territories  to 
Slavery,  but  to  try  therein  the  new  and  fasci¬ 
nating  theories  of  Non-intervention  and 
Popular  Sovereignty;  and,  finally,  it  over¬ 
threw  both  these  new  and  elegant  systems  by 
the  English  Lecompton  bill  and  the  Dred 
Scott  decision,  on  the  ground  that  the  free 
States  ought  not  to  enter  the  Union  without  a 
population  equal  to  the  representative  basis  of 
one  member  of  Congress,  although  slave 
States  might  come  in  without  inspection  as  to 
their  numbers. 

Will  any  member  of  the  Democratic  party 
now  here  claim  that  the  authorities  chosen  by 
the  suffrages  of  the  party  transcended  their 
partisan  platforms,  and  so  misrepresented  the 
party  in  the  various  transactions  I  have  re¬ 
cited  ?  Then  I  ask  him  to  name  one  Demo¬ 
cratic  statesman  or  legislator,  from  Van  Buren 
to  Walker,  who  either  timidly  or  cautiously 
like  them,  or  boldly  and  defiantly  like 
Douglas,  ever  refused  to  execute  a  behest  of 
the  slaveholders,  and  was  not  therefor,  and 
for  no  other  cause,  immediately  denounced, 
and  deposed  from  his  trust,  and  repudiated 
by  the  Democratic  party  for  that  contu- 
mac /. 

I  think,  fellow-citizens,  that  I  have  shewn 
you  that  it  is  high  time  for  the  friends  of 
Freedom  to  rush  to  the  rescue  of  the  Con¬ 
stitution,  and  that  their  very  first  duty  is  to 
dismiss  the  Democratic  party  from  the  admi¬ 
nistration  of  the  Government. 


Why  shall  it  not  be  done  ?  All  agree  that 
it  ought  to  be  done.  What,  then,  shall  pre¬ 
vent  its  being  done  ?  Nothing  but  timidity 
or  division  of  the  opponents  of  the  Demo¬ 
cratic  party. 

Some  of  these  opponents  start  one  objec¬ 
tion,  and  some  another.  Let  us  notice  these 
objections  briefly.  One  class  say  that  they 
cannot  trust  the  Republican  party ;  that  it 
has  not  avowed  its  hostility  to  Slavery  boldly 
enough,  or  its  affection  for  Freedom  earnestly 
enough. 

I  ask,  in  reply,  is  there  any  other  party 
which  can  be  more  safely  trusted?  Every 
one  knows  that  it  is  the  Republican  party,  or 
none,  that  shall  displace  the  Democratic 
party.  But  I  answer,  further,  that  the  cha¬ 
racter  and  fidelity  of  any  party  are  deter¬ 
mined,  necessarily,  not  by  its  pledges,  pro¬ 
grammes,  and  platforms,  but  by  the  public 
exigencies,  and  the  temper  of  the  people  whec 
they  call  it  into  activity.  Subserviency  to 
Slavery  is  a  law  written  not  only  on  -the  fore¬ 
head  of  the  Democratic  party,  but  also  in  its 
very  soul — so  resistance  to  Slavery,  and  devo¬ 
tion  to  Freedom,  the  popular  elements  now 
actively  working  for  the  Republican  party 
among  the  people,  must  and  will  be  the  re¬ 
sources  for  its  ever-renewing  strength  and 
constant  invigoration. 

Others  cannot  support  the  Republican 
party,  because  it  has  not  sufficiently  exposed 
its  platform,  and  determined  what  it  will  do, 
and  what  it  will  not  do,  when  triumphant. 
It  may  prove  too  progressive  for  some,  and 
too  conservative  for  others.  As  if  any  party 
ever  foresaw  so  clearly  the  course  of  future 
events  as  to  plan  a  universal  scheme  for  future 
action,  adapted  to  all  possible  emergencies. 
Who  would  ever  have  joined  even  the  Whig 
party  of  the  Revolution,  if  it  had  been  obliged 
to  answer,  in  1775,  whether  it  would  declare 
for  Independence  in  1776,  and  for  this  noble 
Federal  Constitution  of  ours  in  1787,  and  not 
a  year  earlier  or  later  ? 

The  people  of  the  United  States  will  be  as 
wise  next  year,  and  the  year  afterward,  and 
even  ten  years  hence,  as  we  are  now.  They 
will  oblige  the  Republican  party  to  act  as  the 
public  welfare  and  the  interests  of  justice 
and  humanity  shall  require,  through  all  the 
stages  of  its  career,  whether  of  trial  or 
triumph. 

Others  will  not  venture  an  effort,  because 
they  fear  that  the  Union  would  not  endure 
the  change.  Will  such  objectors  tell  me  how 
long  a  Constitution  can  bear  a  strain  directly 
along  the  fibres  of  which  it  is  composed? 
This  is  a  Constitution  of  Freedom.  It  is 
being  converted  into  a  Constitution  of  Slavery. 
It  is  a  republican  Constitution.  It  is  being 
made  an  aristocratic  one.  Others  wish  to 
wait  until  some  collateral  questions  concern.- 


7 


ing  temperance,  or  the  exercise  of  the  elective 
franchise  are  properly  settled.  Let  me  ask 
all  such  persons,  whether  time  enough  has 
not  been  wasted  on  these  points  already, 
without  gaining  any  other  than  this  single  ad¬ 
vantage,  namely,  the  discovery  that  only  one 
thing  can  be  effectually  done  at  one  time,  and 
that  the  one  thing  which  must  and  will  be 
done  at  any  one  time  is  just  that  thing  which 
is  most  urgent,  and  will  no  longer  admit  of 
postponement  or  delay.  Finally,  we  are  told 
by  faint-hearted  men  that  they  despond  ;  the 
Democratic  party,  they  say,  is  unconquerable, 
and  the  dominion  of  Slavery  .is  consequently 
inevitable.  I  reply  to  them,  that  the  com¬ 
plete  and  universal  dominion  of  Slavery 
would  be  intolerable  enough  when  it  should 
have  come  after  the  last  possible  effort  to 
escape  should  have  been  made.  There  would, 
in  that  case,  be  left  to  us  the  consoling  reflec¬ 
tion  of  fidelity  to  duty. 

But  I  reply,  further,  that  T  know — few,  I 
think,  know  better  than  I — the  resources  and 
energies  of  the  Democratic  party,  which  is 
identical  with  the  Slave  Power.  I  do  ample 
prestige  to  its  traditional  popularity.  I  know, 
further — few,  I  think,  know  better  than  I — 
the  difficulties  and  disadvantages  of  organiz¬ 
ing  a  new  political  force  like  the  Republican 
party,  and  the  obstacles  it  must  encounter  in 
laboring  without  prestige  and  without  patron¬ 
age.  But,  notwithstanding  all  this,  I  know 
that  the  Democratic  party  must  go  down,  and 
that  the  Republican  party  must  rise  into  its 
place.  The  Democratic  party  derived  its 
strength,  originally,  from  its  adoption  of  the 
principles  of  equal  and  exact  justice  to  all 
men.  So  long  as  it  practised  this  principle 
faithfully,  it  was  invulnerable.  It  became 
vulnerable  when  it  renounced  the  principle, 
and  since  that  time  it  has  maintained  itself, 
not  by  virtue  of  its  own  strength,  or  even  of 
its  traditional  merits,  but  because  there  as  yet 
had  appeared  in  the  political  field  no  other 


party  that  had  the  conscience  and  the  courage 
to  take  up,  and  avow,  and  practise  the  life- 
inspiring  principle  which  the  Democratic 
party  had  surrendered.  At  last,  the  Repub¬ 
lican  party  has  appeared.  It  avows  now,  as 
the  Republican  party  of  1800  did,  in  one 
word,  its  faith  and  its  works,  “Equal  and 
exact  justice  to  all  men.”  Even  when  it  first 
entered  the  field,  only  half  organized,  it 
struck  a  blow  which  only  just  failed  to  securo 
complete  and  triumphant  victory.  In  this, 
its  second  campaign,  it  has  already  won  advan¬ 
tages  which  render  that  triumph  now  both 
easy  and  certain. 

The  secret  of  its  assured  success  lies  in  that 
very  characteristic  which,  in  the  mouth  of 
scoffers,  constitutes  its  great  and  lasting  imbe¬ 
cility  and  reproach.  It  lies  in  the  fact  that  it 
is  a  party  of  one  idea;  but  that  idea  is  a  noble 
one — an  idea  that  fills  and  expands  all  gene¬ 
rous  souls ;  the  idea  of  equality — the  equality 
of  all  men  before  human  tribunals  and  human 
laws,  as  they  all  are  equal  before  the  Divine 
tribunal  and  Divine  laws. 

I  know,  and  you  know,  that  a  revolution 
has  begun.  I  know,  and  all  the  world  knows, 
that  revolutions  never  go  backward.  Twenty 
Senators  and  a  hundred  Representatives  pro¬ 
claim  boldly  in  Congress  to-day  sentiments 
and  opinions  and  principles  of  Freedom  which 
hardly  so  many  men,  even  in  this  free  State, 
dared  to  utter  in  their'  own  homes  twenty 
years  ago.  While  the  Government  of  the 
United  States,  under  the  conduct  of  the 
Democratic  party,  has  been  all  that  time  sur¬ 
rendering  one  plain  and  castle  after  another 
to  Slavery,  the  people  of  the  United  States 
have  been  no  less  steadily  and  perseveringly 
gathering  together  the  forces  with  which  to 
recover  back  again  all  the  fields  and  all  the 
castles  which  have  been  lost,  and  to  confound 
and  overthrow,  by  one  decisive  blow,  the 
betrayers  of  the  Constitution  and  Freedom 
forever. 


“Negro  Slavery  not  Unjust.” 


AT  THE  UNION  MEETING 

AT  THE  ACADEMY  OF  MUSIC,  NEW  YORK  CITY,  DEC.  19,  1859. 


Mr.  Mayor  and  Gentlemen  : — I  cannot  ex¬ 
press  to  you  the  delight  which  I  experience 
in  beholding  in  this  great  city  so  vast  an  as¬ 
sembly  of  my  fellow  citizens,  convened  for 
the  purpose  stated  in  your  resolutions.  I  am 
delighted  beyond  measure  to  behold  at  this 
time  so  vast  an  assembly  responding  to  the 
call  of  a  body  so  respectable  as  the  twenty 
thousand  New  Yorkers  who  have  convened 
this  meeting.  If  anything  can  give  assurance 
to  those  who  doubt,  and  confidence  to  those 
who  may  have  had  misgivings  as  to  the  per¬ 
manency  of  our  institutions,  and  the  solidity 
of  the  support  which  the  people  of  the  North 
are  prepared  to  give  them,  it  is  that  in  the 
queen  city  of  the  New  World,  in  the  capital 
of  North  America,  there  is  assembled  a  meet¬ 
ing  so  large,  so  respectable,  and  so  unanimous 
as  this  meeting  has  shown  itself  to  be  in  re¬ 
ceiving  sentiments  which,  if  observed,  must 
protect  our  Union  from  destruction,  and  even 
from  danger.  (Applause.)  Gentlemen,  is  it  not 
a  subject  of  astonishment  that  the  idea  of 
danger,  and  the  still  more  dreadful  idea  of 
dissolution,  should  be  heard  from  the  lips  of 
an  American  citizen,  at  this  day,  in  reference 
to.  or  in  connection  with,  the  sacred  name  of 
this  most  sacred  Union  ?  (Applause.)  Why 
gentlemen,  what,  is  our  Union  ?  What  are  its 
antecedents  ?  What  is  its  present  condition  ? 
If  we  ward  off  the  evils  which  threaten  it, 
what  its  future  hope  for  us  and  for  the  great 
family  of  mankind  ?  Why,  gentlemen,  it  may 
well  be  said  of  this  Union  as  a  government, 
that  as  it  is  the  last  offspring,  so  is  it  Time’s 
most  glorious  and  beneficent  production.  Gen¬ 
tlemen,  we  are  created  by  an  Omniscient 
Being.  We  are  created  by  a  Being  not  only 
All-Seeing,  but  All-Powerful  and  All-Wise. 
And  in  the  benignity  and  the  farseeing  wis¬ 
dom  of  His  power.  He  permitted  the  great 
family  of  mankind  to  live  on,  to  advance,  to 
improve,  step  by  step,  and  yet  permitted  five 
thousand  years  and  upward  to  elapse  ere  He 
laid  the  foundatinn  of  a  truly  free,  a  truly 
happy,  and  a  truly  independent  empire.  It 
was  not,  gentlemen,  until  that  great  length  of 
time  had  elapsed,  that  the  earth  was  deemed 
mature  for  laying  the  foundations  of  this 
mighty  and  prosperous  State.  It  was  then 
that  He  inspired  the  noble-minded  and  chival¬ 
rous  Genoese  to  set  forth  upon  the  trackless 


ocean  and  discover  the  empire  that  we  now 
enjoy.  But  a  few  years,  comparatively,  had 
elapsed  when  tkpre  was  raised  up  in  this 
blessed  land  a  seflof  men  whose  like  had  never 
before  existed  upon  the  face  of  this  earth. 
Men  unequalled  in  their  perceptions  of  the 
true  principles  of  justice,  in  their  comprehen¬ 
sive  benevolence,  in  their  capacity  to  lay 
safely,  justly,  soundly,  and  with  all  the  qua¬ 
lities  which  should  insure  permanency,  the 
foundations  of  an  empire.  It  was  in  177R, 
and  in  this  country,  that  there  assembled  the 
first,  the  very  first,  assembly  of  rational  men 
who  ever  proclaimed,  in  clear  and  undeniable 
form,  the  immutable  principles  of  liberty,  and 
consecrated,  to  all  time  I  trust,  in  the  face  of 
tyrants,  and  in  opposition  to  their  power,  the 
rights  of  nations  and  the  .rights  of  men.  (Ap¬ 
plause.)  These  patriots,  as  soon  as  the  storm 
of  war  had  passed  away,  sat  down  and  framed 
that  instrument  upon  which  our  Union  rests, 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  of  Ame¬ 
rica.  (Applause.)  And  the  question  now  be¬ 
fore  us  is  neither  more  nor  less  than  this : 
whether  that  Constitution,  consecrated  by  the 
blood  shed  in  that  glorious  Revolution,  con¬ 
secrated  by  the  signature  of  the  most  illus¬ 
trious  man  who  ever  lived,  George  Washing¬ 
ton  (applause)  —  whether  that  instrument, 
accepted  by  the  wisest  and  by  the  best  of  that 
day,  and  accepted  in  convention,  one  by  one, 
in  each  and  every  State  of  this  Union — that 
instrument  from  which  so  many  blessings 
have  flown — whether  that  instrument  was 
conceived  in  crime,  is  a  chapter  of  abomina¬ 
tions  (cries  of  “  No,  no  ”),  is  a  violation  of 
justice,  is  a  league  between  strong-handed  but 
wicked-hearted  white  men  to  oppress,  and  im¬ 
poverish,  and  plunder  their  fellow-creatures, 
contrary  to  rectitude,  honor  and  justice.  (Ap¬ 
plause.)  This  is  the  question,  neither  more 
nor  less.  We  are  told  from  pulpits,  we  are 
told  from  the  political  rostrum,  we  are  told 
in  the  legislative  assemblies  of  our  Northern 
States,  not  merely  by  speakers,  but  by  distinct 
resolutions  of  the  whole  body — we  are  told  by 
gentlemen  occupying  seats  in  the  Congress  of 
the  Union  through  the  votes  of  Northern  peo¬ 
ple — that  the  Constitution  seeks  to  enshrine, 
to  protect,  to  defend  a  monstrous  crime 
against  justice  and  humanity,  and  that  it  is 
our  duty  to  defeat  its  provisions,  to  outwit 


9 


them,  if  we  cannot  otherwise  get  rid  of  their 
effect,  and  to  trample  upon  the  rights  which  it 
aas  declared  shall  be  protected  and  insured  to 
our  brethren  of  the  South.  (Applause.)  That  is 
jhe  doctrine  now  advocated.  And  I  ask  wheth¬ 
er  that  doctrine,  necessarily  involving  the 
destruction  of  our  Union,  shall  be  permitted  to 
prevail  as  it  has  hitherto  prevailed  ?  Gentle¬ 
men,  I  trust  you  will  excuse  me  for  deliberately 
coming  up  to  and  meeting  this  question — not 
seeking  to  captivate  your  fancies  by  a  trick  of 
words — not  seeking  to  exalt  your  imaginations 
by  declamation  or  by  any  effort  at  eloquence 
— but  meeting  this  question  gravely,  sedately, 
and  soberly,  and  asking  you  what  is  to  be  our 
course  in  relation  to  it?  Gentlemen,  the  Con¬ 
stitution  guarantees  to  the  people  of  the 
Southern  States  the  protection  of  their  slave 
property.  In  that  respect  it  is  a  solemn  com¬ 
pact  between  the  North  and  the  South.  As 
a  solemn  compact,  are  we  at  liberty  to  violate 
it  ?  (Cries  of  “  No,  no  !”)  Are  we  at  liberty 
to  seek  or  take  any  mean,  petty  advantage  of 
it  ?  (Cries  of  “  No  !  no !”)  Are  we  at  liberty 
to  con  over  its  particular  words,  and  to  re¬ 
strict  and  to  limit  its  operation,  so  as  to  acquire 
under  such  narrow  construction,  a  pretence  of 
right  by  hostile  and  adverse  legislation? 
(“No!  no!”) — to  interfere  with  the  interests, 
wound  the  feelings,  and  trample  on  the  politi¬ 
cal  rights  of  our  Southern  fellow-citizens? 
(“  No !  no  !  no !”)  No,  gentlemen.  If  it  be  a 
compact,  and  has  anything  sacred  in  it,  we 
are  bound  to  observe  it  in  good  faith,  honestly 
and  honorably,  not  merely  to  the  letter,  but 
fully  to  the  spirit,  and  not  in  any  mincing, 
half-way,  unfair,  or  illiberal  construction, 
seeking  to  satisfy  the  letter,  to  give  as  little 
as  we  can,  and  thereby  to  defeat  the  spirit. 
(Applause.)  That  may  be  the  way  that  some 
men  keep  a  contract  about  the  sale  of  a  house 
or  of  a  chattel,  but  it  is  not  the  way  honest 
men  observe  contracts,  even  in  relation  to  the 
most  trivial  things.  (“  True,”  and  applause.) 
What  has  been  done,  having  a  tendency  to 
disturb  harmony  under  this  Constitution,  and 
to  break  down  and  destroy  the  union  now  ex¬ 
isting  between  these  States?  Why,  gentle¬ 
men,  at  an  early  period  the  subject  of  slavery, 
as  a  mere  philosophical  question,  was  dis¬ 
cussed  by  many,  and  its  justice  or  injustice 
made  the  subject  of  argument  leading  to 
various  opinions.  It  mattered  little  how  long 
this  discussion  should  last,  while  it  was  con¬ 
fined  within  such  limits.  If  it  had  only  led 
to  the  formation  of  societies  like  the  Shakers, 
who  do  not  believe  in  matrimony ;  societies 
like  the  *people  of  Utah,  destined  to  a  short 
career,  who  believe  in  too  much  of  it  (laugh¬ 
ter)  ;  or  societies  of  people  like  the  strong- 
minded  women  of  our  country,  who  believe 
that  women  are  much  better  qualified  than 
men  to  perform  the  functions  and  offices  usu¬ 
ally  performed  by  men  (laughter) — and  who 


probably  would,  if  they  had  their  way,  simply 
change  the  order  of  proceedings,  and  transfer 
the  husband  to  the  kitchen,  and  themselves 
to  the  field  or  the  cabinet.  (Laughter  and 
applause.)  So  long,  I  say,  as  this  sentimen¬ 
tality  touching  slavery  confined  itself  to  the 
formation  of  parties  and  societies  of  this  des¬ 
cription,  it  certainly  could  do  no  great  harm, 
and  we  might  satisfy  ourselves  with  the 
maxim  that  “  Error  can  do  little  harm  as  long 
as  truth  is  left  free  to  combat  it.”  But  unfor¬ 
tunately,  gentlemen,  this  sentimentality  has 
found  its  way  out  of  the  meeting  houses — from 
among  pious  people,  assemblies  of  speculative 
philosophers,  and  societies  formed  to  benefit 
the  inhabitants  of  Barioboola-gha — it  has 
found  its  way  into  the  heart  oi  the  selfish 
politician ;  it  has  been  made  the  war-cry  of 
party ;  it  has  been  made  the  instrument 
whereby  to  elevate  not  merely  to  personal 
distinction  and  social  rank,  but  to' political 
power.  Throughout  the  non-slaveholding 
States  of  this  Union,  men  have  been  thus  ele¬ 
vated  who  advocate  a  course  of  conduct  neces¬ 
sarily  exasperating  the  South,  and  the  natural 
effect  of  whose  teachings  renders  the  Southern 
people  insecure  in  their  property  and  their 
lives,  making  it  a  matter  of  doubt  each  night 
whether  they  oan  safely  retire  to  their  slum¬ 
bers  without  sentries  and  guards  to  protect 
them  against  incursions  from  the  North.  I 
say  the  effect  has  been  to  elevate,  on  the 
strength  of  this  sentiment,  such  men  to  power. 
And  what  is  the  result — the  condition  of 
things  at  this  day?  "Why,  gentlemen,  the 
occasion  that  calls  us  together  is  the  occur¬ 
rence  of  a  raid  upon  the  State  of  Virginia  by 
a  few  misguided  fanatics — followers  of  these 
doctrines,  with  arms  in  their  hands,  and  bent 
upon  rapine  and  murder.  I  called  them  fol¬ 
lowers,  but  they  should  be  deemed  leaders. 
They  were  the  best,  the  bravest,  and  the  most 
virtuous  of  all  the  abolition  party.  (Ap¬ 
plause.)  On  the  Lord’s  day,  at  the  hour  of 
still  repose,  they  armed  the  bondman  with 
pikes  brought  from  the  North,  that  he  might 
slay  his  master,  his  master’s  wife,  and  his 
master’s  little  children.  And  immediately 
suoceedfng  to  it — at  this  very  instant — what 
is  the  political  question  pending  before  Con¬ 
gress  ? 

A  book  substantially  encouraging  the  same 
course  of  provocation  toward  the  South  which 
has  been  long  pursued,  is  openly  recommended 
to  circulation  by  sixty-eight  members  of  your 
Congress.  (Cries  of  “Shame  on  them,”  ap¬ 
plause,  and  hisses.)  Recommended  to  circu¬ 
lation  by  sixty-eight  members  of  your  Con¬ 
gress,  all  elected  in  Northern  States  (hisses 
and  applause) — every  one,  I  say,  elected  from 
non-slaveholding  States.  And  with  the  assist¬ 
ance  of  their  associates,  some  of  whom  hold 
their  offices  by  your  votes,  there  is  great  dan¬ 
ger  that  they  will  oloct  to  the  highest  office 


10 


tn  that  body,  where  he  will  sit  as  a  represen- 
fative  of  the  whole  North,  a  man  who  united 
in  causing  that  book  to  be  distributed  through 
the  South,  carrying  poison  and  death  in  its 
polluted  leaves.  (“Hang  him,”  and  applause.) 
is  it  not  fair  to  say  that  this  great  and  glori¬ 
ous  Union  is  menaced  when  such  a  state  of 
things  is  found  to  exist  ?  when  such  an  act  is 
attempted  ?  Is  it  reasonable  to  expect  that 
our  brethren  of  the  South  will  calmly  sit  down 
(“  No  ”)  and  submit  quietly  to  such  an  out¬ 
rage?  (Cries  of  “No,  no.”)  Why,  gentle¬ 
men,  we  greatly  exceed  them  in  numbers. 
The  non-slaveholding  States  are  by  far  the 
more  populous ;  they  are  increasing  daily  in 
numbers  and  in  population  and  we  may  soon 
overwhelm  the  Southern  vote.  If  we  con¬ 
tinue  to  fill  the  halls  of  legislation  with  aboli¬ 
tionists,  and  permit  to  occupy  the  executive 
chair  men  who  declare  themselves  to  be  en¬ 
listed  in- a  crusade  against  slavery,  and  against 
the  provisions  of  the  Constitution  which  se¬ 
cure  that  species  of  property,  what  can  we 
reasonably  expect  from  the  people  of  the  South 
but  that  they  will  pronounce  the  Constitution 
— with  all  its  glorious  associations,  with  all 
its  sacred  memories — this  Union,  with  its 
manifold  present  and  promised  blessings — -an 
unendurable  evil,  threatening  to  crush  and  to 
destroy  their  most  vital  interests — to  make 
their  country  a  wilderness.  Why  should  we 
expect  them  to  submit  to  such  a  line  of  con¬ 
duct  on  our  part,  and  recognize  us  as  brethren, 
or  unite  with  us  in  perpetuating  the  Union  ? 

For  my  part  I  do  not  see  anything  unjust  or 
unreasonable  in  the  declaration  often  made  by 
Southern  members  on  this  subject.  They  tell 
us :  “  If  you  will  thus  assail  us  with  incen¬ 
diary  pamphlets,  if  you  will  thus  create  a 
spirit  in  your  country  which  leads  to  violence 
and  bloodshed  among  us,  if  you  will  assail  the 
institution  upon  which  the  prosperity  of  our 
country  depends,  and  will  elevate  to  office 
over  us  men  who  are  pledged  to  aid  in  such 
transactions,  and  to  oppress  us  by  hostile  le¬ 
gislation,  we  cannot — much  as  we  revere  the 
Constitution,  greatly  as  we  estimate  the  bless¬ 
ings  which  would  flow  from  its  faithful  en¬ 
forcement — we  cannot  longer  depend  on  your 
compliance  with  its  injunctions,  or  adhere  to 
the  Union.”  For  my  part,  gentlemen,  if  the 
North  continues  to  conduct  itself  in  the  selec¬ 
tion  of  representatives  to  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States  as,  from,  perhaps,  a  certain  de¬ 
gree  of  negligence  and  inattention,  it  has  here¬ 
tofore  conducted  itself,  the  South  is  not  to  be 
censured  if  it  withdraws  from  the  Union. 
(Hisses  and  applause.  A  voice — “that’s  so.” 
Three  cheers  for  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law)  We 
are  not,  gentlemen,  to  hold  a  meeting  to  say 
that  “  We  love  this  Union  ;  we  delight  in  it ; 
we  are  proud  of  it;  it  blesses  us,  and  we  en- 
oy  it ;  but  we  shall  fill  all  its  offices  with  men 
,jf  our  own  choosing,  and,  our  brethren  of  the 


South,  you  shall  enjoy  its  glorious  past;  you 
shall  enjoy  its  mighty  recollections;  but  it 
shall  trample  your  institutions  in  the  dust.” 
We  have  no  right  to  say  it.  We  have  no 
right  to  exact  so  much  ;  and  an  opposite  and 
entirely  different,  course,  fellow-citizens,  must 
be  ours — must  be  the  course  of  the  great 
North,  if  we  would  preserve  this  Union. 
(Applause,  and  cries  of  “  Good.”) 

And,  gentlemen,  what  is  this  glorious  Un¬ 
ion  ?  What  must  we  sacrifice  if  we  exaspe¬ 
rate  our  brethren  of  the  South,  and  compel 
them,  by  injustice  and  breach  of  compact,  to 
separate  from  us  and  to  dissolve  it?  Why, 
gentlemen,  the  greatness  and  glory  of  the 
American  name  will  then  be  a  thing  of  yes¬ 
terday.  The  glorious  Revolution  of  the  thir¬ 
teen  States  will  be  a  Revolution  not  achieved 
by  us,  but  by  a  nation  that  has  ceased  to  ex¬ 
ist.  The  name  of  Washington  will  be,  to  us 
at  least  at  the  North  (cheers),  but  as  name  of 
Julius  Ccesar,  or  of  some  other  great  hero  who 
has  lived  in  times  gone  by,  whose  nation  has 
perished  and  exists  no  more.  The  Declaration 
of  Independence,  what  will  that  be  ?  Why, 
the  declaration  of  a  State  that  no  longer  haa 
place  among  the  nations.  All  these  bright 
and  glorious  recollections  of  the  past  must 
cease  to  be  our  property,  and  become  mere 
memorials  of  a  by -gone  race  and  people.  A 
line  must  divide  the  North  from  the  South. 
What  will  be  the  consequences?  Will  this 
mighty  city — growing  as  it  now  is,  with 
weath  pouring  into  it  from  every  portion  of 
this  mighty  empire — will  it  continue  to  flour¬ 
ish  as  it  has  done?  (Cries  of  “No,  no!”) 
Will  your  marble  palaces  that  line  Broadway, 
and  raise  their  proud  tops  toward  the  sky, 
continue  to  increase,  until,  as  is  now  pro¬ 
mised  under  the  Union,  it  shall  present  the 
most  glorious  picture  of  wealth,  prosperity, 
and  happiness,  that  the  world  has  ever  seen  ? 
(Applause.)  No!  gentlemen,  no!  such  things 
cannot  be.  I  do  not  say  that  we  will  starve, 
that  we  will  perish,  as  a  people,  if  we  sepa¬ 
rate  from  the  South.  I  admit,  that  if  the  line 
be  drawn  between  us,  they  will  have  their 
measure  of  prosperity,  and  we  will  have  ours ; 
but  meagre,  small  in  the  extreme,  compared 
with  what  is  existing,  and  promised  under  our 
Union,  will  be  the  prosperity  of  each. 

Truly  has  it  been  said  here  to-night,  that 
we  were  made  for  each  other ;  separate  us, 
and  although  you  may  not  destroy  us,  you  re¬ 
duce  each  to  so  low  a  scale  that  well  might 
humanity  deplore  the  evil  courses  that 
brought  about  the  result.  True,  gentlemen, 
we  would  have  left,  to  boast  of,  our  share  of 
the  glories  of  the  Revolution.  The  Northern 
States  sent  forth  to  the  conflict  their  bands  of 
heroes,  and  shed  their  blood  as  freely  as  those 
of  the  South.  But  the  dividing  line  would 
take  away  from  us  the  grave  of  Washington. 
It  is  in  his  own  beloved  Virginia.  (Applause 


11 


and  cheers.)  It  is  in  the  State  and  near  the  I 
spot  where  this  treason  that  has  been  grow¬ 
ing  up  in  the  North,  so  lately  culminated  in 
violence  and  bloodshed.  We  would  lose  the 
grave — we  would  lose  all  connection  with  the 
name  of  Washington.  But  our  philanthropic 
and  pious  friends  who  fain  would  lead  us  to 
this  result,  would,  of  course,  comfort  us  with 
the  consoling  reflection  that  we  had  the  glo¬ 
rious  memory  of  John  Brown  in  its  place. 
(Great  laughter  and  cheers.)  Are  you,  gen¬ 
tlemen,  prepared  to  make  the  exchange? 
(Cries  of  “No,  no.”)  Shall  the  tomb  of 
Washington,  that  rises  upon  the  bank  of  the 
Potomac,  receiving  its  tribute  from  every  na¬ 
tion  of  the  earth — shall  that  become  the  pro¬ 
perty  of  a  foreign  Ssate— a  State  hostile  to  us 
in  its  feelings,  and  we  to  it  in  ours  ?  Shall 
we  erect  a  monument  among  the  arid  hills  at 
North  Elba,  and  deem  the  privilege  of  mak¬ 
ing  pilgrimages  thither  a  recompense  for  the 
loss  of  every  glorious  recollection  of  the  past, 
and  for  our  severance  from  the  name  of  Wash¬ 
ington  ?  He  who  is  recognized  as  the  Father 
*f  his  Country?  (Cries  of  “No,  no,”  and 
cheers.)  No,  gentlemen,  we  are  not  prepared, 
t  trust,  for  this  sad  exchange,  this  fatal  seve¬ 
rance.  We  are  not  prepared,  I  trust,  either 
to  part  with  our  glorious  past  or  to  give  up 
the  advantages  of  our  present  happy  condi¬ 
tion.  We  are  not  prepared  to  relinquish  our 
affection  for  the  South,  nor  to  involve  our 
section  in  the  losses,  the  deprivation  of  bless¬ 
ings  and  advantages  necessarily  resulting  to 
each  from  disunion.  Gentlemen,  we  never 
would  have  attained  the  wealth  and  prospe¬ 
rity  as  a  nation  which  is  now  ours,  but  for  our 
connection  with  these  very  much  reviled  and  in¬ 
jured  slaveholders  of  the  Southern  States.  And, 
gentlemen,  if  dissolution  is  to  take  place,  we  must 
part  with  the  trade  of  the  South,  and  thereby  sur¬ 
render  our  participation  in  the  wealth  of  the 
South.  Nay,  more — we  are  told  from  good  au¬ 
thority  that  we  must  not  only  part  with  the  slave¬ 
holding  States,  but  that  our  younger  sister  with 
the  golden  crown — rich,  teeming  California,  she 
who  added  the  final  requisite  to  our  greatness  as 
a  nation — will  not  come  with  us.  She  will  re¬ 
main  with  the  South. 

Gentlemen,  if  we  allow  this  course  of  injustice 
toward  the  South  to  continue,  these  are  to  be  the 
consequences — evil  to  us,  evil  also  to  them.  Much 
of  all  that  we  are  most  proud  of ;  much  of  all 
that  contributes  to  our  prosperity  and  greatness 
as  a  nation,  must  pass  away  from  us. 

The  question  is — Should  we  permit  it  to  be 
continued,  and  submit  to  all  these  evils?  Is  there 
any  reason  to  justify  such  a  course  ?  There  is  a 
reason  preached  to  us  for  permitting  it.  We  are 
told  that  slavery  is  unjust;  we  are  told  that  it  is 
a  matter  of  conscience  to  put  it  down  ;  and  that 
whatever  treaties  or  compacts,  or  laws,  or  consti¬ 
tutions,  have  been  made  to  sanction  and  uphold 
it,  it  if.  still  unholy,  and  that  we  are  bound  to 
trample  upon  treaties,  compacts,  laws,  and  consti¬ 
tutions,  and  to  stand  by  what  these  men  arro¬ 


gantly  tell  us  is  the  law  of  God  and  a  fundamental 
principle  of  natural  justice.  Indeed,  gentlemen, 
these  two  things  are  not  distinguishable.  The 
|  The  law  of  God  and  natural  justice,  as  between 
man  and  man,  are  one  and  the  same.  The 
wisest  philosophers  of  ancient  times — heathen 
philosophers — said,  The  rule  of  conduct  between 
man  and  man  is,  to  live  honestly,  to  injure  no 
man,  and  to  render  to  every  man  his  due.  In 
words  far  more  direct  and  emphatic,  in  words  of 
the  most  perfect  comprehensiveness,  the  Saviour 
of  the  world  gave  us  the  same  rule  in  one  short 
sentence — “  Love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself.”  (Ap. 
plause.)  Now,  speaking  between  us,  people  of 
the  North  and  our  brethren  of  the  South,  I  ask 
you  to  act  upon  this  maxim — the  maxim  of  the 
heathen — the  command  of  the  living  God:  “  Ren¬ 
der  to  every  man  his  due,”  “  Love  thy  neighbor 
as  thyself.”  (Applause.)  Thus  we  should  act 
and  feel  toward  the  South.  Upon  that  maxim 
which  came  from  Him  of  Nazareth  we  should  act 
toward  the  South,  but  without  putting  upon  it 
any  new-fangled,  modern  interpretation.  Wo 
should  neither  say  nor  think  that  any  Gospel  min¬ 
ister  of  this  day  is  wiser  than  God  himself — than 
He  who  gave  us  the  Gospel.  These  maxims 
should  govern  between  us  and  our  brethren  of  the 
South.  But,  gentlemen,  the  question  is  this :  Do 
these  maxims  justify  the  assertion  of  those  who 
seek  to  invade  the  rights  of  the  South,  by  pro¬ 
claiming  negro  slavery  unjust  ?  That  is  the  point 
to  which  this  great  argument,  involving  the  fate 
of  our  Union,  must  now  come.  Is  negro  slavery 
unjust?  If  it  be  unjust,  it  violates  the  first  rule 
of  human  conduct,  “  Render  to  every  man  his 
due.”  If  it  be  unjust,  it  violates  the  law  of  God 
which  says,  “  Love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself,”  for 
that  law  requires  that  we  should  perpetrate  no 
injustice.  Gentlemen,  if  it  could  be  maintained 
that  negro  slavery  is  unjust,  is  thus  in  conflict 
with  the  law  of  nature  and  the  law  of  God,  per¬ 
haps  I  might  be  prepared — perhaps  we  all  ought 
to  be  prepared  to  go  with  that  distinguished  man 
to  whom  allusion  is  frequently  made,  and  say, 
there  is  a  “  higher  law  ”  which  compels  us  to  tram¬ 
ple  beneath  our  feet,  as  a  wicked  and  unholy  com¬ 
pact,  the  Constitution  established  by  our  fathers, 
with  all  the  blessings  it  secures  to  their  children. 
But  I  insist — and  that  is  the  argument  which  wo 
must  meet,  and  on  which  we  must  come  to  a  con¬ 
clusion  that  shall  govern  our  action  in  the  future 
selection  of  representatives  in  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States — 1  insist  that  negro  slavery  is  not 
unjust.  (Long  continued  applause.)  It  is  not  un¬ 
just  ;  it  is  just,  wise ,  and  beneficent.  (Hisses,  fol¬ 
lowed  by  applause,  and  cries  of  “Put  him  out.”) 
Let  him  stay,  gentlemen. 

President — Let  him  stay  there.  Order. 

Mr.  O’Conor— Serpents  may  hiss,  but  good  men 
will  hear.  (Cries  again  of  “  Put  him  out ;”  calls 
to  order;  confusion  for  a  time.) 

The  President — If  anybody  hisses  here,  re¬ 
member  that  every  one  has  his  own  peculiar  way 
of  expressing  himself,  and  as  some  birds  only 
understand  hissing,  they  must  hiss.  (Applause.) 

Mr.  O’Conor — Gentlemen,  there  is  an  animal 
upon  this  earth  that  has  no  faculty  of  making  its 
sentiments  known  in  any  other  way  than  by  a 
hiss.  I  am  for  equal  rights.  (Three  cheers  were 
LIBRARY 

I  I WIUPRQITY  np  II  I  INDIS 


12 


here  given  for  Mr.  O’Conor,  three  for  Gov.  Wise, 
and  three  groans  for  John  Brown.)  I  beg  of  you, 
gentlemen,  all  of  you  who  are  of  my  mind  at  least, 
to  preserve  silence,  and  leave  the  hissing  animal 
in  the  full  enjoyment  of  his  natural  privileges. 
(Cries  of  “  Good,  good,”  laughter  and  applause.) 
The  first  of  our  race  that  offended  was  taught  to 
do  so  by  that  hissing  animal.  (Laughter  and  ap¬ 
plause.)  The  first  human  society  that  was  ever 
broken  up  through  sin  and  discord,  had  its  happy 
union  dissolved  by  the  entrance  of  that  animal. 
(Applause.)  Therefore,  I  say  it  is  his  privilege  to 
hiss.  Let  him  hiss  on.  (Cries  of  “  Good,  good,” 
laughter  and  applause.)  Gentlemen,  I  will  not 
detain  you  much  longer.  (Cries  of  “  Go  on,  go 
on.”)  I  maintain  that  negro  slavery  is  not  un¬ 
just— (a  voice — “No,  sir,”  applause,)  that  it  is 
benign  in  its  influences  upon  the  white  man  and 
upon  the  black.  (Voices — “  That’s  so,  that’s  so,” 
applause.)  I  maintain  that  it  is  ordained  by  na¬ 
ture  ;  that  it  is  a  necessity  of  both  races  ;  that,  in 
climates  where  the  black  race  can  live  and  pros¬ 
per,  nature  herself  enjoins  correlative  duties  on 
the  black  man  and  on  the  white,  which  can¬ 
not  be  performed  except  by  the  preservation, 
and,  if  the  hissing  gentleman  please,  the  perpetua¬ 
tion  of  negro  slavery. 

I  am  fortified  in  this  opinion  by  the  highest 
tribunal  in  our  country,  that  venerable  exponent 
of  our  institutions,  and  of  the  principles  of  justice 
— the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States.  That 
court  has  held,  on  this  subject,  what  wise  men 
will  ever  pronounce  to  be  sound  and  just  doctrine. 
There  are  some  principles  well  known,  well  under¬ 
stood,  universally  recognized  and  universally  ac¬ 
knowledged  among  men,  that  are  not  to  be  found 
written  in  constitutions  or  in  laws.  The  people 
of  the  United  States,  at  the  formation  of  our 
Government,  were,  as  they  still  are,  in  some  sense, 
peculiar  and  radically  distinguishable  from  other 
nations.  We  were  white  men,  of — what  is  com¬ 
monly  called,  by  way  of  distinction — the  Cauca¬ 
sian  race.  W e  were  a  monogamous  people  ;  that 
is  to  say,  we  were  not  Mohammedans,  or  followers 
of  Joe  Smith — with  half  a  dozen  wives  apiece. 
(Laughter.)  It  was  a  fundamental  principle  of 
our  civilization  that  no  State  could  exist  or  be 
tolerated  in  this  Union  which  should  not,  in  that 
respect,  resemble  all  the  other  States  of  the  Union. 
Some  other  distinctive  features  might  be  stated 
which  serve  to  mark  us  as  a  people  distinct  from 
others,  and  incapable  of  associating  on  terms  of 
perfect  political  equality  or  social  equality,  as 
friends  and  fellow-citizens,  with  some  kinds  of 
people  that  are  to  be  found  upon  the  face  of  the 
earth.  As  a  white  nation,  we  made  our  Constitu¬ 
tion  and  our  laws,  vesting  all  political  rights  in 
that  race.  They,  and  they  alone,  constituted,  in, 
every  political  sense,  the  American  people.  (Ap¬ 
plause.)  As  to  the  negro,  why,  we  allowed  him 
to  live  under  the  shadow  and  protection  of  our 
laws.  We  gave  him,  as  we  were  bound  to  give 
him,  protection  against  wrrong  and  outrage ;  but 
we  denied  to  him  political  rights,  or  the  power  to 
govern.  We  left  him,  for  so  long  a  period  as  the 
community  in  which  he  dwelt  should  so  order,  in 
the  condition  of  a  bondman.  (Applause.)  Now, 
gentlemen,  to  that  condition  the  negro  is  assigned 


by  nature.  (Cries  of  “  Bravo  *  and  “  That’s  so,” 
and  applause.)  Experience  shows  that  his  race 
cannot  prosper — that  they  become  extinct  in  any 
cold,  or  in  any  very  temperate  clime ;  but  in  the 
warm,  the  extremely  warm  regions,  his  race  can 
be  perpetuated,  and  with  proper  guardianship, 
may  prosper.  He  has  ample  strength,  and  is 
competent  to  labor,  but  nature  denies  to  him 
either  the  intellect  to  govern  or  the  willinngess 
to  work.  (Applause.)  Both  were  denied  him. 
That  same  power  which  deprived  him  of  the  will 
to  labor,  gave  him,  in  our  country,  as  a  recom¬ 
pense,  a  master  to  coerce  that  duty,  and  convert 
him  into  a  useful  and  valuable  servant.  (Ap¬ 
plause.)  I  maintain  that  it  is  not  injustice  to 
leave  the  negro  in  the  condition  in  which  nature 
placed  him,  and  for  which  alone  he  is  adapted. 
Fitted  only  for  a  state  of  pupilage,  our  slave 
system  gives  him  a  master  to  govern  him  and  to 
supply  his  deficiencies :  in  this  there  is  no  injus¬ 
tice.  Neither  is  it  unjust  in  the  master  to  compel 
him  to  labor,  and  thereby  afford  to  that  master  a 
just  compensation  in  return  for  the  care  and 
talent  employed  in  governing  him.  In  this  way 
alone  is  the  negro  enabled  to  render  himself  use¬ 
ful  to  himself  and  to  the  society  in  which  he  is 
placed. 

These  are  the  principles,  gentlemen,  which  the 
extreme  measures  of  abolitionism  compel  us  to 
enforce.  This  is  the  ground  that  we  must  take, 
or  abandon  our  cherished  Union.  We  must  no 
longer  favor  political  leaders  who  talk  about 
negro  slavery  being  an  evil ;  nor  must  we  advance 
the  indefensible  doctrine  that  negro  slavery  is  a 
thing  which,  although  pernicious,  is  to  be  toler¬ 
ated  merely  because  we  have  made  a  bargain  to 
tolerate  it.  We  must  turn  away  from  the  teach¬ 
ings  of  fanaticism.  We  must  look  at  negro  sla¬ 
very  as  it  is,  remembering  that  the  voice  of  inspi¬ 
ration,  as  found  in  the  sacred  volume,  nowhere 
condemns  the  bondage  of  those  who  are  fit  only 
for  bondage.  Yielding  to  the  clear  decree  of 
nature,  and  the  dictates  of  sound  philosophy,  wre 
must  pronounce  that  institution  just,  benign,  law¬ 
ful  and  proper.  The  Constitution  established  by 
the  fathers  of  our  Republic,  which  recognized  it, 
must  be  maintained.  And  that  both  may  stand 
together,  we  must  maintain  that  neither  the  insti¬ 
tution  itself,  nor  the  Constitution  which  upholds 
it,  is  wicked  or  unjust;  but  that  each  is  sound 
and  wise,  and  entitled  to  our  fullest  support. 

We  must  visit  with  our  execration  any  man 
claiming  our  suffrages,  who  objects  to  enforcing, 
with  entire  good  faith,  the  provisions  of  the  Con¬ 
stitution  in  favor  of  negro  slavery,  or  who  seeks, 
by  any  indirection,  to  withhold  its  protection 
from  the  South,  or  to  get  away  from  its  obliga¬ 
tions  upon  the  North.  Let  us  henceforth  support 
no  man  for  public  office  whose  speech  or  action 
tends  to  induce  assaults  upon  the  territory  of  our 
Southern  neighbors,  or  to  generate  insurrection 
within  their  borders.  (Loud  applause.)  These 
are  the  principles  upon  which  we  must  act.  This 
is  what  we  must  say  to  our  brethren  of  the  South. 
If  we  have  sent  men  into  Congress  who  are  false 
to  these  views,  and  are  seeking  to  violate  the 
compact  which  binds  us  together,  we  must  ask  to 
be  forgiven  until  we  have  another  chance  to  mani- 


13 


fest  our  will  at  the  ballot-boxes.  We  must  tell 
them  that  these  men  shall  be  consigned  to  privacy 
(applause),  and  that  true  men,  men  faithful  to  the 
Constitution,  men  loving  all  portions  of  the  coun¬ 
try  alike,  shall  be  elected  in  their  stead.  And, 
gentlemen,  we  must  do  more  than  promise  this — 
we  must  perform  it.  (Loud  applause,  followed  by 
three  cheers  for  Mr.  O’Conor,  and  a  tiger.)  But 
a  word  more,  gentlemen,  and  I  have  done.  (Cries 
of  “  Go  on.”)  I  have  no  doubt  at  all  that  what  I 
have  said  to  you  this  evening  will  be  greatly  mis¬ 
represented.  It  is  very  certain  that  I  have  not 
had  time  enough  properly  to  enlarge  upon  and 
fully  to  explain  the  interesting  topics  on  which  I 
have  ventured  to  express  myself  thus  boldly  and 
distinctly,  taking  upon  myself  the  consequences, 
be  they  what  they  may.  (Applause.)  But  I  will 
say  a  few  words  by  way  of  explanation.  I  have 
maintained  the  justice  of  slavery;  I  have  main¬ 
tained  it,  because  I  hold  that  the  negro  is  decreed 
by  nature  to  a  state  of  pupilage  under  the  domi¬ 
nion  of  the  wiser  white  man,  in  every  clime  where 
God  and  nature  meant  the  negro  should  live  at 
all.  (Applause.)  I  say  a  state  of  pupilage;  and, 
that  I  may  be  rightly  understood,  I  say  that  it  is 
the  duty  of  the  white  man  to  treat  him  kindly  ; 
that  it  is  the  interest  of  the  white  man  to  treat 
him  kindly.  (Applause.)  And  further,  it  is  my 
belief  that  if  the  white  man,  in  the  States  where 
slavery  exists,  is  not  interfered  with  by  the  fana¬ 
tics  who  are  .  now  creating  these  disturbances, 
whatever  laws,  whatever  improvements,  whatever 
variations  in  the  conduct  of  society  are  necessary^ 
for  the  purpose  of  enfolding  in  every  instance  the 
dictates  of  interest  and  humanity,  as  between  the 
white  man  and  the  black,  will  be  faithfully  and 
fairly  carried  out  in  the  progress  of  that  improve¬ 
ment  in  all  these  things  in  whiclTwe  are  engaged. 
It  is  not  pretended  that  the  master  ha3  a  right  to 
slay  his  slave  ;  it  is  not  pretended  that  he  has  a 
right  to  be  guilty  of  harshness  and  inhumanity  to 
his  slave.  The  laws  of  all  the  Southern  States  for¬ 
bid  that:  we  have  not  the  right  here  at  the  North 
to  be  guilty  of  cruelty  toward  a  horse.  It  is  an 
indictable  offence  to  commit  such  cruelty.  The 
same  laws  exist  in  the  South,  and  if  there  is  any 
failure  in  enforcing  them  to  the  fullest  extent,  it 
is  due  to  this  external  force,  which  is  pressing 
upon  the  Southern  States,  and  compels  them  to 
abstain  perhaps  from  many  acts  beneficent  toward 
the  negro  which  otherwise  would  be  performed. 
(Applause.)  In  truth,  in  fact,  in  deed,  the  white 
man  in  the  slaveholding  States  has  no  more 
authority  by  the  law  of  the  land  over  his  slave 
than  our  laws  allow  to  a  father  over  his  minor 
children.  He  can  no  more  violate  humanity  with 
respect  to  them,  than  a  father  in  any  of  the  free 
States  of  this  Union  can  exercise  acts  violative  of 
humanity  toward  his  own  son  under  the  age  of 
twenty-one.  So  far  as  the  law  is  concerned,  you 
own  your  boys,  and  have  a  right  to  their  services 
until  they  are  twenty-one.  You  can  make  them 
work  for  you ;  you  have  the  right  to  hire  out  their 
services  and  take  their  earnings;  you  have  the 
right  to  chastise  them  with  judgment  and  reason 
if  they  violate  your  commands  ;  and  they  are  en¬ 
tirely  without  political  rights.  Not  one  of  them 
at  the  age  of  twenty  years  and  eleven  months 


even,  can  go  to  the  polls  and  give  a  vote.  There¬ 
fore,  gentlemen,  before  the  law,  there  is  but  one 
difference  between  the  free  white  man  of  twenty 
years  of  age  in  the  Northern  States,  and  the 
negro  bondman  in  the  Southern  States.  The 
white  man  is  to  be  emancipated  at  twenty-one, 
because  his  God-given  intellect  entitles  him  to 
emancipation  and  fits  him  for  the  duties  to  de¬ 
volve  upon  him.  The  negro,  to  be  sure,  is  a 
bondman  for  life.  He  may  be  sold  from  one  mas¬ 
ter  to  another,  but  where  is  the  ill  in  that? — one 
may  be  as  good  as  another.  If  there  be  laws 
with  respect  to  the  mode  of  sale,  which  by  sepa¬ 
rating  man  and  wife  do  occasionally  lead  to  that 
which  shocks  humanity,  and  may  be  said  to  vio¬ 
late  all  propriety  and  all  conscience — if  such 
things  are  done,  let  the  South  alone  and  they  will 
correct  the  evil.  Let  our  brethren  of  the  South 
take  care  of  their  own  domestic  institutions  and 
they  will  do  it.  (Applause  )  They  will  so  govern 
themselves  as  to  suppress  acts  of  this  description, 
if  they  are  occasionally  committed,  as  perhaps 
they  are,  and  we  must  all  admit  that  they  are  con¬ 
trary  to  just  conceptions  of  right  and  humanity. 

I  have  never  yet  heard  of  a  nation  conquered  from 
evil  practices,  brought  to  the  light  of  civilization, 
brought  to  the  light  of  religion  or  the  knowledge 
pf  the  Gospel  by  the  bayonet,  by  the  penal  laws, 
or  by  external  persecutions  of  any  kind.  It  is 
not  by  declamation  and  outcry  against  a  people 
from  those  abroad  and  outside  of  their  territory 
that  you  can  improve  their  manners  or  their 
morals  in  any  respect.  No  ;  if,  standing  outside 
of  their  territory,  you  attack  the  errors  of  a  peo¬ 
ple,  you  make  them  cling  to  their  faults.  From 
a  sentiment  somewhat  excusable — somewhat  akin 
to  self  respect  and  patriotism — they  will  resist 
their  nation’s  enemy.  Let  our  brethren  of  the 
South  alone,  gentlemen,  and  if  there  be  any 
errors  of  this  kind,  they  will  correct  them. 

There  is  but  one  way  in  which  you  can  thus 
leave  them  to  the  guidance  of  their  own  judg¬ 
ment — by  which  you  can  retain  them  in  this 
Union  as  our  brethren,  and  perpetuate  this  glori¬ 
ous  Union  ;  and  that  is,  by  resolving — without 
reference  to  the  political  party  or  faction  to 
which  any  one  of  you  may  belong,  without  refer¬ 
ence  to  the  name,  political  or  otherwise,  which  you 
may  please  to  bear — resolving  that  the  man,  be 
he  who  he  may,  who  advocates  the  doctrine  that 
negro  slavery  is  unjust,  and  ought  to  be  assailed 
or  legislated  against,  or  who  agitates  the  subject 
of  extinguishing  negro  slavery  in  any  of  its  forms 
as  a  political  hobby,  that  that  man  shall  be  denied 
your  suffrages,  and  not  only  denied  your  suffrages, 
t  but  that  you  will  select  from  the  ranks  of  the  op¬ 
posite  party,  or  your  own,  if  necessary,  the  man 
you  like  least,  who  entertains  opposite  sentiments, 
but  through  whose  instrumentality  you  may  be 
enabled  to  defeat  his  election,  and  to  secure  in 
the  councils  of  the  nation  men  who  are  true  to 
the  Constitution,  who  are  lovers  of  the  Union — 
men  who  cannot  be  induced  by  considerations  of 
imaginary  benevolence  for  a  people  who  really  do 
not  desire  their  aid,  to  sacrifice  or  to  jeopard  in 
any  degree  the  blessings  we  enjoy  under  this 
Union.  May  it  be  perpetual. 

(Great  and  continued  cheering.) 


14 


THE  REAL  QUESTION  STATED. 


LETTER  FROM  CHARLES  O’CONOR 

Nrw  York,  Dec.  20, 1859. 

Chas.  O’Cokor,  Esq.  :  The  undersigned,  being  desirous 
of  circulating  as  widely  as  possible,  both  at  the  North  and 
at  the  South,  the  proceedings  of  the  Union  Meeting  held  at 
the  Academy  of  Music  last  evening,  intend  publishing  in 
pamphlet  form,  for  distribution,  a  correct  copy  of  the  same. 

Will  you  be  so  kind  as  to  inform  us  whether  this  step 
meets  your  approval ;  and  if  so,  furnish  us  with  a  cor¬ 
rected  report  of  your  speech  delivered  by  you  on  that  occa¬ 
sion.  Yours  respectfully, 

LEITCH,  BURNET  A  00., 

GEO.  W.  &  JEHIAL  READ, 

BRUFF,  BROTHER  A  SEAVER, 

C.  B.  HATCH  &  CO., 

DAVIS,  NOBLE  A  CO., 

(Formerly  Forman,  Davis  A  Co., 
WESSON  &  COX, 

CRONIN,  HURXTHAL  A  SEARS, 
ATWATER,  MULFORD  A  CO. 

Gentlemen:  The  measure  you  propose 
meets  my  entire  approval. 

I  have  long  thought  that  our  disputes  con¬ 
cerning  negro  slavery  would  soon  terminate, 
if  the  public  mind  could  be  drawn  to  the  true 
issue,  and  steadily  fixed  upon  it.  To  effect  this 
object  was  the  sole  aim  of  my  address. 

Though  its  ministers  can  never  permit  the 
law  of  the  land  to  be  questioned  by  private 
judgment,  there  is,  nevertheless,  such  a  thing 
as  natural  justice.  Natural  justice  has  the  Di¬ 
vine  sanction ;  and  it  is  impossible  that  any 
human  law  which  conflicts  with  it  should  long 
endure. 

Where  mental  enlightenment  abounds, 
where  morality  is  professed  by  all,  where  the 
mind  is  free,  speech  is  free,  and  the  press  is 
free,  is  it  impossible,  in  the  nature  of  things, 
that  a  law  which  is  admitted  to  conflict  with 
natural  justice,  and  with  God’s  own  mandate, 
should  long  endure? 

You  all  will  admit  that,  within  certain 
limits,  at  least,  our  Constitution  does  contain 
positive  guarantees  for  the  preservation  of  ne¬ 
gro  slavery  in  the  old  States  through  all  time, 
unless  the  local  legislatures  shall  think  fit  to 
abolish  it.  And,  consequently,  if  negro  slavery, 
however  humanely  administered  or  judicious¬ 
ly  regulated,  be  an  institution  which  conflicts 
with  natural  justice  and  with  God’s  law, 
surely  the  most  vehement  and  extreme  admi¬ 
rers  of  John  Brown’s  sentiments  are  right ; 
and  their  denunciations  against  the  Constitu¬ 
tion,  and  against  the  most  hallowed  names 
connected  with  it,  are  perfectly  justifiable. 

The  friends  of  truth — the  patriotic  Ameri¬ 
cans  who  would  sustain  their  country’s  honor 
against  foreign  rivalry,  and  defend  their  coun- 1 


TO  A  COMMITTEE  OF  MERCHANTS. 

try’s  interests  against  all  assailants,  err  greatly 
when  they  contend  with  these  men  on  any 
point  but  one.  Their  general  principles  can¬ 
not  be  refuted ;  their  logic  is  irresistible ;  the 
errror,  if  any  there  be,  is  in  their  premises* 
They  assert  that  negro  slavery  is  unjust.  This, 
and  this  alone,  of  all  they  say,  is  capable  of 
being  fairly  argued  against. 

If  this  proposition  cannot  be  refuted,  our 
Union  cannot  endure,  and  it  ought  not  to  en¬ 
dure. 

Our  negro  bondmen  can  neither  be  exter¬ 
minated  nor  transported  to  Africa.  They  are 
too  numerous  for  either  process,  and  either,  if 
practicable,  would  involve  a  violation  of  hu¬ 
manity.  If  they  were  emancipated,  they  would 
relapse  into  barbarism,  or  a  set  of  negro  States 
would  arise  in  our  midst,  possessing  political 
equality,  and  entitled  to  social  equality.  The 
division  of  parties  would  soon  make  the  negro 
members  a  powerful  body  in  Congress — would 
place  some  of  them  in  high  political  stations, 
and  occasionally  let  one  into  the  Executive 
chair. 

It  is  in  vain  to  say  that  this  could  be  en¬ 
dured  ;  it  is  simply  impossible. 

What  then  remains  to  be  discussed  ? 

The  negro  race  is  upon  us.  With  a  Consti¬ 
tution  which  held  them  in  bondage,  our  Fede¬ 
ral  Union  might  be  preserved  ;  but  if  so  hold¬ 
ing  them  in  bondage  be  a  thing  forbidden  by 
God  and  Nature,  we  cannot  lawfully  so  hold 
them,  and  the  Union  must  perish. 

This  is  the  inevitable  result  of  that  conflict 
which  has  now  reached  its  climax. 

Among  us  at  the  North,  the  sole  question 
for  reflection,  study,  and  friendly  interchange 
of  thought  should  be — Is  negro  slavery  unjust? 
The  rational  and  dispassionate  inquirer  will 
find  no  difficulty  in  arriving  at  my  conclusion. 
It  is  fit  and  proper ;  it  is,  in  its  own  nature, 
as  an  institution,  beneficial  to  both  races  ;  and 
the  effect  of  this  assertion  is  not  diminished 
by  our  admitting  that  many  faults  are  prac¬ 
tised  under  it.  Is  not  such  the  fact  in  respect 
to  all  human  laws  and  institutions  ? 

I  am,  gentlemen,  with  great  respect,  yours 
truly, 

CHARLES  O’CONOR. 

To  Messrs.  Leitch,  Burnet  A  Co.  ;  George  W.  A  Jehial 
Read;  Bruff,  Brother  A  Seaver  ;  C.  B.  Hatch  A  Co.  ; 
Davis,  Noble  A  Co.  ;  Wesson  A  Cox ;  Cronin,  Hurxthal  A 
Sears  ;  Atwater,  Mulford  A  Co. 


15 


CONFLICTING  AUTHORITIES. 


At  the  late  Union-saving  meeting  in  this  city, 
wherein  sundry  gentlemen  distinguished  them¬ 
selves  no  less  for  their  lofty  patriotism  in  pre¬ 
venting  the  dissolution  of  the  Union  than  for  their 
generous  abuse  of  the  Republican  party  in  gene¬ 
ral  and  Gov.  Seward  in  particular,  the  speech  of 
Mr.  O’Conor  was  the  gem  of  the  occasion.  The 
clerical  patriotism  and  happy  forgetfulness  of  the 
reverend  theologian;  the  stately  and  heavy 
grandeur  of  the  ex-Governor ;  the  splendid  hits 
and  magnificent  periods  of  the  chameleon  Thayer 
— all  pale  before  the  effort  of  this  distinguished 
orator  of  the  legal  profession.  It  is,  however, 
deserving  of  special  notice,  not  on  account  of  its 
novelty,  its  logic,  or  its  moral  tone,  but  for  the 
simple  fact  that  the  leading  Democratic  journals 
have  pronounced  it  a  bold  and  manly  effort,  and 
assumed  it  as  the  key-note  of  Democratic  con¬ 
servatism.  As  a  lawyer,  Mr.  O’Conor,  in  giving 
utterance  to  his  extreme  Pro-Slavery  sentiments, 
so  utterly  abhorrent  to  the  intelligence  and  moral 
sense  of  the  North,  should  at  least  have  attempted 
to  fortify  his  doctrine  by  a  show  of  authority  or 
logical  argument. 

We  do  not,  however,  deny  the  right  of  this  dis¬ 
tinguished  advocate,  in  presenting  the  case  of  his 
Southern  clients  and  of  the  Northern  Democracy, 
to  take  his  own  course  ;  but  we  propose  to  call  him 
and  several  other  witnesses,  whom  he  himself  will 
recognize  as  men  of  some  eminence  as  lawyers, 
jurists,  statesmen,  philosophers,  and  theologians, 
and  present  their  testimony  to  the  American  peo¬ 
ple,  in  order  that  they  may  come  to  a  right  con¬ 
clusion  as  to  the  success  of  Mr.  Charles  O’Conor’s 
defence  of  Slavery,  and  its  Democratic  indorse¬ 
ment.  And  first,  consider  an  extract  from  Mr. 
O’Conor’s  speech  upon  this  subject  of  Slavery  : 

“  It  (Negro  Slavery)  is  not  only  not  unjust,  It  is  just,  wise 
and  beneficent.” — Charles  O'Conor. 

This  ipse  dixit  closes  the  case  on  the  part  of  the 
Democracy.  Now,  on  the  other  hand  : 

“Slavery  is  inconsistent  with  the  genius  of  Republican¬ 
ism— it  lessens  the  sense  of  the  equal  rights  of  mankind, 
and  habituates  us  to  tyranny  and  oppression.” — Luther 
Martin ,  of  Md. 

“  It  (Slavery)  is  so  odious  that  nothing  can  be  sufficient 
to  support  it  but  positive  law.”— Lord  Mansfield. 

“  It  is  injustice  to  permit  Slavery  to  remain  for  a  single 
hour.” — William,  Pitt. 

“  Slavery  is  contrary  to  the  fundamental  law  of  all  so¬ 
cieties.” — Montesquieu. 

“  Slavery,  in  all  its  forms,  in  all  its  degrees,  is  a  violation 
of  divine  law,  and  a  degradation  of  human  nature.” — 
B'issot. 

“  Those  are  men-stealers  who  abduct,  keep,  sell,  or  buy 
slaves  or  freemen.” — Grotius. 

“Slavery  is  detrimental  to  virtue  and  industry.” — 
Beattie. 

“  slavery  is  a  system  of  outrage  and  robbery.” — Socrates. 

“Slavery  is  a  system  of  the  most  complete  injustice.” — 
Plato. 

“  While  men  despise  fraud,  and  loathe  rapine,  and  abhor 
blood,  they  will  reject  with  indignation  the  wild  and 
guilty  phantasy  that  man  can  hold  property  in  man.” — 
Brougham. 

“  Slavery  is  a  state  so  improper,  so  degrading,  so  ruinous 
to  the  feelings  and  capacities  of  human  nature,  that  it 
ought  not  to  be  suffered  to  exist.” — Burke. 

“  No  man  is  by  nature  the  property  of  another.”— Dr. 
Johnson. 


“  A  system  (Slavery)  which  is  not  only  opposed  to  all  the 
principles  of  morality,  but  as  it  appears  to  me,  is  pregnant 
with  appalling  and  inevitable  danger  to  the  Republic.” — 
Baron  Humboldt. 

“  Every  man  has  a  property  in  his  own  person — this  no¬ 
body  has  a  right  to  but  himself.” — Locke. 

“It  perverts  human  reason,  and  induces  men  endowed 
with  logical  powers  to  maintain  that  Slavery  is  sanctioned 
by  the  Christian  religion,” — John  Q.  Adcums. 

“I  never  would  consent  and  never  have  consented  tha 
there  should  be  one  foot  of  Slavery  territory  beyond  what 
the  old  thirteen  States  had  at  the  formation  of  the  Union. 
Never,  never.” — Daniel  Webster. 

“  It  (Slavery)  ought  not  to  be  introduced  nor  permitted  in 
any  of  the  new  States.” — John  Jay. 

“Natural  liberty  is  the  gift  of  the  beneficent  Creator  of 
the  whole  human  race.”—  Alex.  Hamilton. 

“  Slavery  is  an  atrocious  debasement  of  human  nature.” 
— Franklin. 

“  It  (Slavery)  impairs  our  strength  as  a  community,  and 
poisons  our  morals  at  the  fountain  head.” — Judge  Gaston , 
of  N.  C. 

“  The  evils  of  this  system  (Slavery)  cannot  be  enumer¬ 
ated.” — George  W.  Summers,  of  Va. 

“  So  long  as  God  allows  the  vital  current  to  flowthrough 
my  veins,  I  will  never,  never,  never,  by  word  or  thought, 
by  mind  or  will,  aid  in  submitting  one  rood  of  free  territory 
to  the  everlasting  curse  of  Human  Bondage.” — Henry 
Clay. 

“  Sir,  I  envy  neither  the  heart  nor  the  head  of  that  man 
from  the  North  who  rises  here  (in  Congress)  to  defend 
Slavery  from  principle.” — John  Randolph. 

“  We  have  found  that  this  evil  (Slavery)  has  preyed  upon 
the  very  vitals  of  the  Union,  and  has  been  prejudicial  to 
all  the  States  in  which  it  has  existed.”— James  Monroe. 

“The  abolition  of  domestic  Slavery  is  the  greatest  object 
of  desire  in  these  Colonies,  where  it  was  unhappily  intro¬ 
duced  in  their  infant  state.” — Thomas  Jeff&rson. 

“  I  can  only  say  that  there  is  not  a  man  living  who 
wishes  more  sincerely  than  I  do  to  see  a  plan  adopted  for 
the  abolition  of  it  ”  (Slavery). — Geo.  Washington. 

For  Mr.  O’Conor’s  special  benefit,  we  introduce 
two  other  witnesses : 

“  Not  only  does  the  Christian  religion,  but  nature  her¬ 
self  cry,  out  against  the  state  of  Slavery.  —Pope  Leo  X. 

“  We  further  reprobate,  by  our  Apostolic  authority,  all 
the  above  offences  (traffic  in  slaves  and  holding  them  in 
Slavery)  as  utterly  unworthy  of  the  Christian  name.” — 
Pope  (Gregory  X  VI. 

We  simply  add  that  the  Roman  Catholic  Church, 
the  Lutheran,  the  Greek,  the  Nestorian,  the  Church 
of  England,  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  Scotland, 
the  Reformed  Churches  of  France,  Switzerland, 
and  Holland ;  indeed,  the  whole  Protestant  Church 
— all,  except  a  few  churches  in  the  Southern 
States — now,  and  at  all  times,  have  deplored  and 
denounced  human  bondage,  as  a  social,  moral, 
and  political  evil — either  by  their  creeds,  laws,  or 
constitutions,  or  by  the  authoritative  opinions  of 
their  most  eminent  divines.  And  yet,  Mr.  Charles 
O’Conor,  as  tbs  representative  man  of  the  vast 
multitude  of  the  Union-saving  Democracy — stand¬ 
ing  in  the  great  commercial  emporium  of  this 
great  Republic — has  the  effrontry  to  proclaim 
(and  is  applauded  for  so  proclaiming)  that  the 
system  of  Negro  Slavery,  which  the  united  voices 
of  the  great  and  the  good,  in  all  ages,  and  which 
the  advancing  civilization  of  the  whole  of  Christen¬ 
dom  unite  in  denouncing  as  .abhorrent  to  all  law, 
human  and  divine,  “is  not  only  not  unjust,  but  is 
just,  wise,  and  beneficent.”  And  the  Pro-Slaverv 
Democracy  not  only  does  not  condemn  the  utter¬ 
ance  of  this  abominable  sentiment,  but  sustains 
and  applauds  it ! 


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